A New Hero's Creation
by FFNend
Summary: Sonic has saved Tails, but can the young fox become a hero like his blue friend. Sonic 2 Adaptation. Sequel to Different Beginnings. Thanks petitedreamer for betaing chapter 8,9,10,11,12,and 13. Sorta finished and sorta on Hiatus.
1. Author Note

**A New Hero's Creation**

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**Disclaimer**: The characters contained in this story are owned by Sega, however this story has no affiliation with Sega in any way. The storyline contained in this fanfic is based upon the computer game "Sonic and Tails" created by Sega. The author, me, accepts that they own pretty much nothing.

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**Description:**

Sonic 2 adaptation. Sequel to Different Beginnings (it can be read on its own without reading the prequel)

**Pairings:**

None

**Warnings:**

It may be violent, but it will most likely be tame.

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**Author Note: **And so begins the sequel. Let us all just hope that I don't completely screw this story up

_The first chapter will be up soon._


	2. Chapter 1 Recovery

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n:** Here's the first chapter. I really hope this story turns out well.

**Update:** I fixed some spelling/grammar errors that _petite-dreamer_ pointer out to me.

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The rich concrete textured walls of GreenHill City wouldn't have struck many as been overly warm and Sonic and Miles were no exception. In Miles' case however, his discomfort at being so near the location of his miserable childhood was clear to the blue hedgehog that walked silently beside him.

Sonic wasn't particularly dense when it came to his new friend, in fact he was actually remarkable adept at picking up on even the smallest of problems. So it wasn't particularly surprising to him when Miles stopped dead in his tracks and turned his back to the city, blatantly refusing to continue onto the place of his tormented past.

"I'm sorry, Sonic" Miles told his hero quietly, feeling terrible for been so 'wimpy' in front of his idol. "But I just can't go back there. No matter how many times you promise it's only for a day"

Sonic sighed, but didn't press the issue. "I know this is hard for you, but you have got to face your demons before they become to much for you to handle." Sonic tried to placate the worried fox, knowing that if they didn't sort this out now it was only going to get worse as time went by. "Do you understand, Tails?"

Miles' eyes snapped up to the hedgehog and a glimmer of anger and fear were clearly seen in his pale blue eyes. "W-what did you just call me?" He asked quietly, worried that the answer would lead down the inevitable path of betrayal and regret. "Y-you're the same as them, aren't you?"

Sonic, quickly realising his mistake, turned to the fox. "I didn't mean anything bad by it" He told the scared fox "I just preferred it. It just seemed, right to use. You know, using your uniqueness and using it to show how awesome they make you"

The newly renamed Tails couldn't help but wince at the awkward hedgehog's words, recognising the many grammatical mistakes of his friend. "I guess I don't mind the nickname" Tails told his friend quietly, one of his hands nervously playing with the tip of one of his tails. "It just took me by surprise. Most people tease me about them. I'm just kinda surprised you don't mind them."

"I would never mind something as simple as that, Tails" Sonic told him cheerfully, happy that he'd distracted the fox enough to get them back on the road. "To be honest, it would be a tad hypocritical. Not a whole lot of hedgehogs run at the speed of sound"

Miles sighed quietly to himself "I guess, it's just that I'm so use to people teasing me about them that I'm kinda....I dunno"

"You suspect the worst because it's normally being the case" Sonic told him simply. "And I don't blame you. But you've got to realise that if you keep on looking at everything in the negative, you'll start to dismiss the good"

"I guess" Miles muttered to himself as the duo continued on their journey. "It's mainly just that I don't want to let anyone have a chance to hurt me again. I'm sick of always being the victim"

"Well in that case. How about I train you?" Sonic suggested.

Miles sighed. "I'm not very good at anything physical. I had enough trouble running away from everyone. It's not like I'm going to do much better at fighting them."

"You never know." Sonic told his friend. "So you may as well try."

"I don't follow." Miles admitted "How on earth does that work? Wouldn't it make more sense to work on what you know and improve your skills in the area you know you're good at rather than try something that you'll suck at"

"No" Sonic told him simply. "It's always better to branch out your skills. You may discover another area that you are also have a high aptitude. And from the looks of your twin tails, I have a feeling that there is a lot more to you than meets the eye."

"How many clichés can you recite" Miles muttered quietly to himself, hoping that the hedgehog would be more original soon.

"Just because they're well known ideas doesn't mean that they are wrong." Sonic told the fox, his ego slightly hurt. "If they are said a lot, it's probably because they are true"

Miles had to concede that the hedgehog had gotten him there. 'Fine. I'll train. But, just so you know, I'm only doing it because you want me to. I'm not doing it because I want to hurt people."

Sonic shrugged "Who said I was going to show you how to hurt people? I want you to learn how to defend yourself."

"Aren't they pretty much the same thing?" Miles asked, slightly irritated at the hedgehog's twisted words.

"Well, there is a difference. It's more of a way you view your skills and fights. You need to understand that physical violence is only the final option."

"I know that." Miles muttered, suddenly feeling irritated with the hedgehog. "There are always other alternatives, like walking away and refusing to react. It's the same with racing. I know you're faster than me, but it doesn't matter. I know that I have enough skills as I am and I have no need to prove myself."

"Well, I wouldn't say that exactly." Sonic muttered to himself. "But yeah, that's pretty much right. The trick is working out when to attack and when to try another approach."

"I can pretty much work that out for myself, Sonic" Tails told him, a slither of self importance beginning to appear in his words. "I'm smart enough to work out something as basic as that."

"Good now come on, Tails. GreenHill city calls us and we may as well hurry up and get there." Sonic told him cheerfully, hoping that the fox wouldn't continue to protest. "There isn't much point in delaying the inevitable."

Tails bowed his head slightly, refusing to even glance at the city that had tormented him for so long. " I suppose you're right. I need to face up to my fear and this is probably the best time to do it."


	3. Chapter 2 Avoidance

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n:** Second Chapter done. Man I really hope I didn't screw up the construction of the plane. Trying to think about how Tails would repair the plane with limited resources wasn't exactly simple. Some feedback on Sonic's new accent would be nice. Btw, seven reviews for a first chapter is really good....for me at least. Thank you.

_kilatails:_ They may, they may not leave our fox alone. (That sounded a whole lot creepier that I wanted it to)  
_BrentKa:_ Thanks for the criticism. I tried to avoid falling into those traps and, hopefully, this chapter will be better. (I also discovered that I suck at accents)  
_Shippo's Ramen:_ I'm glad that the characters are acting realistically, oh and when I mentioned messing with the storyline, I meant more of messing up my own plans, rather than continuity with the games.  
_Asher Tye:_ Oops. If I can be bothered, I'll go back and fix that....actually I probably wont. Anyway, I'm glad you seem to enjoy it. And as for Tails' handling of Greenhill City...well you'll see.  
_Pokelad:_ Yep, a sequel. Just try to only read it if you're interested. Don't just do so because you feel you need to. (I wish that made as much sense as I wanted it to)  
_taters4u:_ Who the heck is Mr Big?  
_petite-dreamer:_ I'll try to use commas more responsibly. ;)

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Tails couldn't help wincing as he spotted yet another of his old foes watching him with fuming eyes, perceptibly irritated that the freak was standing in the presence of the great hero that had saved the entire island paradise. However Tails had some consolation when he noticed the equally irate stares Sonic was directing straight back at them.

"Jus' remember that I've got ya back." Sonic muttered softly to his furry, and rather fluffy, sidekick. "If an'thing does happ'n, I'll protect ya. So ya don't need to be so worried."

"I know." Tails answered in response. "I'm just worried about what they are going to do to me after you leave."

Sonic couldn't help sighing at the miserable fox's dismal words. "They aren't going to hurt ya, Tails."

"Are you sure?" Tails asked jadedly, casting a apprehensive glance down a nearby alleyway.

Sonic couldn't help rolling his eyes. This wasn't the first time Tails had asked this, and it was starting to really exasperate him. "Okay. That is it, Tails" He told his fox friend. "We're going to sort this out once and for all." He grabbed Tails' arm securely, though not painfully, and pulled him over to one of the locals, a gray tiger, that Tails had been eyes of worriedly.

"My friend here thinks your going to hurt him." Sonic told the tiger, hoping that he wasn't a absolute moron. "Could ya please tell him that no one cares whether he does or doesn't have a second tail?"

"Um...well..." The tiger trailed off, apparently having difficulty thinking of a reasonable response. Suddenly, in what was evidently a strike of brilliance, the tiger pointed wildly over Sonic's shoulder and yelled out. "Hey look over there. It's a distraction."

Silence fell between the two as Sonic aimed a pointedly irritated stare at the moronic tiger before him. The tiger, realising that there was a high possibility he was on the verge of a excruciating death, didn't move.

"Are ya trying to piss me off?" Sonic enquired irately, his voice abruptly shifting to an incredibly unforgiving tone. I presume that this is an excellent time to inform you that Sonic wasn't just fast when it came to running; he was nowhere near what you would call slow in the mental department either. "Why don't ya just answer the question? Would ya judge my friend negatively because of his two tails?"

The tiger's reaction wasn't quite what Sonic expected. Rather than admitting that it was all some kind of misunderstanding, which was obviously what Sonic hoped, the tiger merely ran away… at quite a reasonable speed.

Sonic rolled his eyes and turned back to Tails, who was understandably looking far from comforted. "Looks like I might need to apologize. Ya were right. The people in this city really are that stupid."

"I told you so." Tails mumbled to himself, not letting the hedgehog realize that he hadn't been the only one hoping that it was a misunderstanding. "So, what do we do now?"

Sonic cast a dismayed gaze around the metropolis. "We'll ask a few more citizens in this hell hole. If they are all that idiotic, I promise that I will take ya to a place that won't treat ya anywhere near as poorly."

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Half an hour later the two friends were a reasonable distance away from the city. They were sitting by Sonic's faithful, and rather wrecked, biplane. Sonic was in a rather bad disposition. He hadn't expected the city to be quite so callous of the fox, and he was rather worried that he wouldn't be able to look after his companion very well.

His journey through Greenhill City had been rather startling to him. News of his battles against the Doctor in Spring Hill, Starlight City and even Scrap Brain Industrial park, had managed to already spread and he was already been hailed as some kind of hero. Unfortunately, that just made it even more regrettable that Tails was been treated so badly by the same people that had rushed to express gratitude to Sonic.

Tails, on the other hand, was actually rather cheerful, enjoying trying to restore the rather severe damage that had occurred to Sonic's prised biplane. At the moment his foremost concern was trying to repair the large tears in the light-weight twin wings. Of course, he couldn't help chuckling at the bizarre parallel that the hero that saved a dual tailed fox also owned a dual winged plane.

The only real concern that the fox currently had present in his mind was whether he could fix the aeroplane with the small amount of obtainable parts before him. The large tears in the wings were hardly going to merely screw back together, and the makeshift repairs Tails was currently completing were far from what he would've deemed adequate, but he knew that they would have to do.

"How do ya even know what ya doing?" Sonic abruptly asked from right behind the surprised Tails. "I doubt ya worked on a whole lot of planes before."

Tails couldn't do much more than shrug. "I've never even seen a plane up close, but I still understand it. I don't know why, but it's like I look at it, and I can see how every single part works and why it had been constructed in such a way. Like, I know why this cross brace is shaped with a slight tilt to make it easier for the engineer to build the plane's cage, fixing the anchor points in the steel ribs. I understand why the propeller only has two blades, instead of three, because it makes it easier to balance, and I understand why they gave it such a round body, because it was easier to carve the wood that way. It all just makes sense. It's all so logical."

"It might be to ya, but to me it looks like it's jus' a mess of metal and wood." Sonic muttered, rather surprised by how easily Tails was piecing the plane back together; even despite the fact that he knew it wasn't the first time the fox had tried to repair the plane.

"Why wouldn't you understand it, it's all really simple?" Tails asked, wondering if his new-found friend was not as bright as he'd initially appeared.

Sonic sighed and sat down next to Tails, as the younger fox began to screw a large sheet of metal, which had taken from the side of the plane, onto the large tears of the wing. "Ya have an amazingly advanced affinity with machinery. I don't. So it is a whole lot harder for me to understand how it all works."

Sonic noticed that Tails was beginning to struggle to both keep the heavy metal sheeting position while trying to secure it, so the blue hero reached over and held it in place. "Thanks." Tails told him gratefully, panting somewhat as he worked to unite the metal sheet to the timber frame of the plane, forcing the nails through the thin metal, deep into the plane's body. "That made it a lot easier."

"Ya know, just because I don't understand how this plane works completely, doesn't mean that I can't help ya." Sonic told him, Reached over to help attach the next sheet the other wing.

Silence fell between the two as they continued work on repairing the remains of what had once been Sonic's prised possession, both of them hoping to leave the worthless city behind them.

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**A/n**: Alright, how was that?

If you notice, Sonic and Tails seem to be taking the easy route and running away from his problems. But let's just say that I won't let them get off that easily, but you probably won't understand what I mean for a little while longer......okay, even I don't know what the heck I'm implying.


	4. Chapter 3 Escape

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n: **Well here's the third chapter. Tell me if I screwed up the spelling of anything.

_kilatails:_ Let's just say that the infamous doctor has priorities.  
_Shippo's Ramen:_ If you have an idea, go for it. That's what I did. As for title ideas...well mine aren't exactly all that great. I have a habit of thinking of them while uploading, so they are more impulsive that anythign else. As for the storyline, well Tails and Sonic met a similar way in AOSTH. Tails fell out of the sky and landed on Sonic after being kicked out of a birds nest (Don't ask why he was in a birds nest)  
_Asher Tye:_ Well since this is based on Sonic2, it should be kinda easy for some of you to work out the plot.....well I hope it'll be easy for me at least.  
_Pokelad:_ They are, aren't they? Well I guess we're going to just have to hope that they are better elsewhere.  
_taters4u:_ I won't mention Mr Big again. Don't worry about it. I write these stories late at night as well....  
_petite-dreamer:_ Yeah, my spelling isn't the best in the world. As for something bad happening...well let's just say that I'm setting the scene.(As you could probably tell from the last line in this chaptery thingo.  
_WolvenWindNinja:_ Glad you're enjoying it.

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The plane's engine was clearly the hardest thing to fix and, like all children, Tails left it until last. The sun was really starting to beat down hard on them and the temperature had already shot much higher than either of them would've preferred. Tails wearily ran his furry paw over his forehead, sighing loudly when he felt how drenched in sweat he had already become. Lucky for the two, the engine wasn't in terrible condition and the repairs weren't going to take too much longer.

"Damn it's too hot to work, what do you say we go rest in the shade?" Sonic asked, the sweat dripping down his back. His mood had already shot past irritation and into annoyance. He slowly stood up and began to move out of the sun, noticing pretty quickly that Tails wasn't following. "Well, aren't you coming?"

Tails shook his head slowly, reaching behind himself for a second spanner. "No thanks, I'm nearly done here. I just have to finish attaching the air filter and this engine might actually purr for us."

"Really?" Sonic asked, surprised at the quick job by his young friend. "I have to admit that it doesn't look like it's ever going to run again."

Tails smirked cheekily and pulled two cords out from the engine. "Appearances can be deceiving" He told Sonic as he allowed the two wires to arc, a small spark jumping the gap. Almost instantly the started motor of the small plane grumbled to force the engine to work. It growled noisily, trying to work and compress the petrol, ready for the first blast.

Suddenly the engine caught and spluttered cleanly to life. To Sonic, the engine sounded better that it had in years and the propeller was turning a whole lot smother than he'd expected.

"It works?" Sonic asked quietly, hoping that the half destroyed plane would be airworthy. "Is it actually going to fly?"

Tails just rolled his eyes and pulled Sonic towards the plane. "Come on. It's time for us to go and I want to be outta here long before the sun wants to set. We've still got to fly this thing to your home, and I don't really want to risk flying at night as well."

"It's already pretty late, Tails." Sonic told him, noticing that there were only a few more hours left of sunlight. "Are you sure we'll be able to make it to the next island before the sun sets?"

Tails merely shrugged, the issue clearly not of much importance. "If we do, we do. If we don't I'll just land it at night"

"Hang on." Sonic suddenly caught the end of the young fox's words. "You expect me to let a completely inexperienced kid fly my plane."

"Well that inexperienced kid did repair it." Tails muttered as he turned away from the stare of the blue hedgehog, his normally hidden nervousness rushing to the surface. "I just figured that since I fixed it and everything, I'd get to learn how to fly it."

Sonic rolled eyes sarcastically, but he had to admit that the fox had a good point. "I guess I could teach you."

"Who said anything about you teaching me?" Tails asked cheekily, running a quick flight check. "I fixed it so I'm pretty sure I can fly it"

Sonic didn't even bother pausing to question his friend. "Okay then. If you think you can fly it, go for it."

"Well then I guess we'd better hurry up and start before the sun goes down" Tails answered quickly, quickly jumping into the plane's small seat, his twin tails catching somewhat awkwardly in the small seat.

"Well I didn't mean right now, but whatever." Sonic muttered to himself, hoping that he hadn't just made a terrible decision.

Tails either didn't hear, or he just couldn't be bothered answering. Instead he fired up the engine's throttle, the plane growling at the harsh new command. Sonic understood the unspoken command and quickly slipped in behind the young fox. It was a tight fit for them both, the single seater plane difficult to move around easily in when it had two passengers, and the twin Tails weren't exactly comfortably arranged, pressing tightly up against Sonic's course, issues like that were completely unimportant to Tails as he opened out the planes somewhat limited throttle, forcing the plane's ancient engine to roar loudly. The plane jumped forward unevenly over the sandy ground. The plane's wings barely missing the local flora, while the wheels were barely missing the water.

The ride was far from comfortable, but one glance at the determined fox at the controls and Sonic was certain that Tails wasn't about to stop. The fox's face had suddenly hardened and a grim look of determination had spread across his features.

Unlike Sonic, Tails was actually quite enjoying the ride. He could feel the engine growling angrily as it forced the plane's thin wheels to run through the sand beneath them. He could feel every tiny rock the thin wooden wheels hit, adjusting the angle of the tail to compensate.

He could hear Sonic yelling out, but what was been said was completely irrelevant, all he cared about was the plane and it's trajectory. Everything was working properly and he could feel the wings beginning to elevate the plane as the rushing wind shot under the streamlined wings..

He pulled back slowly on the controls of the plane, forcing the flaps to slowly move upward, and couldn't help smiling as the plane took smoothly to the air. The plane's wheels slowly rose out of their deep sandy grooves as the lift on the plane finally exceeded its weight.

"Just so you know, Sonic" Tails yelled out over the rushing wind and the roaring engine. "Flying is something that I've always loved" He sighed and closed his eyes, feeling the plane levelling out as he reached an incredible equilibrium. "When I fly, it just feels so perfect" He added as he opened up his eyes.

Sonic chuckled as he pulled himself out from behind Tails' fluffy tails and clambered somewhat recklessly onto the wing. "You know, most Mobians wouldn't let a kid fly a plane."

Tails laughed and tilted the controls slightly to compensate for Sonic's movement. "Most Mobians wouldn't decided to fight hundreds of robots to save a kit"

"Meh." Sonic just leaned against one of the wings upright supports and closed his eyes, ignoring the rushing wind and the strained sound of the motor as it struggled to keep them both airborne. "Wake me when we get there."

Finally the duo was in the air and on their way.

But little did they know that they were being watched. Of course, since there is only really one villain in their world, I'm sure you can guess who it is.

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**A/n**: And so the adventure actually begins. Let us all hope that I can write action scenes well, because there are going to be a hell of a lot of them coming along very freaking soon.


	5. Chapter 4 Midair Violence

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n: **Well here's the fourth chapter. It's time for some action....and a significantly longer chapter.

_AsherTye_: Sweet, that counted as cute. This chapter isn't quite so cute...but it is a little bit.

_petite-dreamer_: Good idea. I so have to include that somehow.

_Shippo's Ramen_: This chapter is a little bit longer....and I'm takign that request....if I can fit it in.

_Pokelad_: Smartass...and yeah, you're right.

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Deep down inside of a massive mechanical marvel, also known as a factory by those with less interesting minds, an evil genius was fuming quietly to himself. "Why couldn't I defeat that blasted hedgehog" Of course his 'quiet' fuming soon turned into irritatingly loud fuming as he managed to completely loose his temper at his defeat. "WHY COULDN'T HE JUST MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS?"

He pulled himself angrily to his feet, quite an amazing achievement when you consider the massive weight his over sized build undoubtedly weighted. Anyway, fatty...err I mean, the doctor slowly made his way through his massive technical base and reached the main console the housed all of the controls of his amazingly vast secret robotical empire, though it was no where near as vast as his waist.

Every single careful step caused his flesh to ripple in an incredibly unappealing wave as it fought to react to the sudden movements. It truly was an amazingly disgusting appearance. Luckily there was no one, if you exclude a few non-sentient robots, present to witness the unsightly result of extreme glutton.

The excessively rotund human lent forwards, his weight impacting on the table somewhat heavily. His gaze was restricted to just one of the many monitors hocked up before him, each running a live feed from the multitude of spy-bots that roamed the world.

On screen the easily visible of a blue hedgehog and a marginally younger fox were currently flying through the air, Sonic asleep and Tails looking slightly bored. A fact that the doctor quickly picked up on. He reviewed the feed and cross referenced its location to his hiding fleets. It was perfect.

"Oh, poor fox." The doctor chuckled evilly, forgetting the name of Tails remarkably quickly. "You look so bored." He reached over to the terminal's main input and quickly keyed in some new instructions to his robotic droids. "Maybe this will keep you entertained."

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The ancient biplane struggled to retain enough lift for a smooth flight and Tails was starting to get rather irritated with how slow and weak the aged engine was. "At this rate we're gonna have to land on South Island instead of the mainland." Tails muttered irritated at the poor turn of events. "Of course, if I keep up a steady speed I might just be able to get there in time. I know there are..."

Unfortunately the fox's precise mental calculations were thrown off by the sudden appearance of one of the few things that could actually still frighten him. He could do little more than swear before the first attack. The closest bot shot towards the old plane and Tails threw it into a heavy dive. The robotic droid missed by inches, but the was immaterial to Tails, he had something much more serious to worry abut, like the ocean that was rushing up to meet him.

He pulled back on the controls and couldn't help wincing as the extreme g forces forced his deep into his seat. He could feel the wings complaining about the sudden force and he could feel them reaching the edge of their limits. Suddenly he felt the plane pull out of the dive, the plane's fragile wheels just brushing the ocean surface, and he could do little more than let out the breathe he'd been unconsciously holding.

Luckily by this time Sonic finally realized that it was time to wake up. Sure it still took him a precious few seconds to actually open his eyes and asses the situation. The blue hedgehog, realizing how serious the situation was, quickly moved back to the middle of the plane, making it easier for his fox friend to stabilize the plane.

Unfortunately there were still more robotic attackers coming at them and there wasn't really much chance of them repeating the same maneuver again. However all wasn't lost and Tails quickly worked out an alternative.

"When I say jump, you need to get on the left wing, go it?" He yelled out to Sonic over the roaring wind.

"Gotcha" Sonic answered back, ignoring the piercing wind shooting by as he planted the balls of his feet against the pilot's seat and prepared to jump. He didn't have to wait long. On of the droids shot at them at an incredibly high speed and Tails could do little more that force the plane to tilt violently to the right, forcing the plane into a violent turn that crushed all of the air out of the two Mobians.

"Jump!" Tails yelled as loud as he could, forcing the plane to try and pull out of what had almost become a death spiral. Luckily for both of them, Sonic quickly heeded the fox's words and threw his weight to the other side of the plane, quickly forcing the plane to bank in the opposite direction, one of the wings splintering dangerously from the violent forces.

He was just quick enough, the inevitable second attack barely missed the frail plane as Tails wrestled with the controls to keep the plane's flight steady, The plane whined loudly as Tails pulled on the controls harshly, however it still grudgingly compiled and Sonic was forced to make a dangerous leap at the cockpit as the plane suddenly shot upward. The blue hedgehog dug his nails deep into the metal and wood beneath him and glanced behind himself.

There were heaps of robotic droids and there wasn't going to be much of a chance to survive if they caught up to them. "See if you can land it" Sonic yelled out over the rushing wind. "They are going to catch us. We've got to get out of the sky."

Tails didn't complain or protest, instead he threw the plane into a tight turn. The violent change in direction almost accidentally threw the hedgehog passenger off. With the plane about to stall at the seriously precarious angle, the young fox forced the controls down and shot towards the ground, dodging another attack as he did so.

One glance at the tail elevator, however, and he immediately regretted his harsh treatment. One of the holding cables had broken and the remaining cable was struggling to keep the flap in place. Tails gunned the engine and sped up, hoping to get closer to the shore before the plane completely died.

He could see the island up ahead, it's rich landscape completely irrelevant information for his panicked mind. The only thing that mattered to the small pilot was whether he would be able to find anywhere to land. Unfortunately, for all involved, as the plane finally reached the shoreline of the large island, a loud explosions shot out of the engine. Deadly shrapnel shooting out of the damaged components, barely missed them.

Of course, an engine is liable to suffer considerably when such an event occurs, so Tails was unable to really do anything more that quickly turn the controls and hope for a beach crash landing that wouldn't be fatal.

Smoke was beginning to billow out of the engine, obscuring the keen eyes of the fox pilot, and Sonic wasn't able to be much help since he was currently clinging onto the side of the craft after a clumsy jump. Tails closed his eyes and did the only thing he could think of, land the plane by instinct alone.

The plane's dying engine finally gave a final cough and cut out completely, the propeller shuddering to a stop. This was a major problem. Unlike most light aircraft, Sonic's biplane wasn't very good when it came to underpowered glides. So there was little either could do except hold on tight and brace for impact as the plane entered a steep dive

The plane shot towards the ground and Sonic had already resolved himself for early retirement from life. However Tails had other plans. "Grab the controls and try to pull up." He yelled out to the hedgehog, hoping that Sonic wouldn't ask any questions or delay.

Sonic simply nodded and pulled himself over grabbing a steady hand on the controls while Tails pulled himself out of the seat and move to the back of the plane. Meanwhile Sonic jumped into the pilot seat and tried to take control of the unwieldy plane. Unfortunately he wasn't having a whole lot of success.

Tails however had a plan. He knew perfectly well that without any propulsion the plane would have almost no chance to even have a decent landing, it was in far too poor of a shape to even attempt gliding, but if he could somehow add some thrust they might have a chance to bring the plane down into a reasonable landing. He reached out to the tail of the plane and grabbed a hold tightly. This wasn't going to be easy.

He concentrated heavily on his tails and did the one thing that no normal person would ever expect from a multi tailed fox. His tails began to spin and whip behind him, generating enormous amounts of thrust that pushed his light body against the back of the plane, providing the aging wreak with just enough lift to pull out of the rather dangerous dive it was in. The plane tipped haphazardly and skimmed along the beach. For a few seconds it really looked like it would all end in tragedy.

It didn't.

Sonic pulled on the control with a large amount of difficulty, hoping that the clearly strained plan would make it down safely. He harshly decreased the angle of approach and just hoped that the sandy beach would be smooth enough.

The plane's wheels hit the ground with a loud crash and a bone jarring jolt. They ran through some saturated sand and suddenly everything went haywire. The left landing wheel of the lightweight plane struck a large rock and the entire plane span around, the right wheel digging in deep, forcing the plane to suddenly flip through the air.

Luckily, the plane somehow managed to right itself in time and was soon brought back under control by Sonic. Barely ten seconds later later the two slowly pulled themselves out of the plane. Their bodies rather tired from the severe impact.

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked the young fox quietly, reaching out to help him stand. "That landing was far from smooth."

Tails merely shrugged as he rubbed the side of his neck, trying to ignore the pain coming from his sprained arm as he took the hedgehog's helping hand. "Nothing that a bit of rest won't fix."

"Next time, you fly." Sonic joked as he looked over the plane, happy that they had made it out with so few injuries. "This is the second beach I've crash landed on."

"So long as it doesn't become a habit" Tails muttered to himself, hoping that the stinging pain coming from his arm really was just a simple strain. "So what are we going to do now? It's not like I can repair your plane all that easily again. It's rather trashed this time."

Sonic chuckled. "Well then I guess where gonna have to scout for some more parts."

Tails didn't answer, he was starting to feel rather strange. He fell to his knees heavily and would've completely fallen over if it wasn't for the steady hand of Sonic. The hedgehog gently sat him down, resting against the plane's slightly charred body. "Just rest, I saw what you did" Sonic whispered quietly as he felt the young fox slowly slip into the blissfully peaceful world of unconsciousness.

As he rested the fox against his side, he gave the sky a quick scan. Fortunately for them both, the robotic attackers had completely disappeared and the sun was already starting to fall below the horizon.

Sighing quietly to himself, Sonic silently moved the limp fox into what he hoped was a more comfortable position, and lay down next to him.

Within minutes he was fast asleep.

* * *

**A/n**: There you all go. Violence and action. I hope I catually did a somewhat good action scene this time around.


	6. Chapter 5 The Emerald Hills

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n:** There's some more action ahead for the famous duo. So there's heaps of action ahead and my wireless keyboard is low on batteries and missing keystrokes.

kilatails: Don't be sorry. I still got plenty of reviews. oh, btw, hit Eggy yourself. Don't be lazy.

WolvenWindNinja: Did I update quick enough for you?

taters4u: If you say so...

_AsherTye_: I still can't work out what 83 means, and yes airplane battles are hard. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of battle scenes. As for where they landed, well ii....I know you already know.

_petite-dreamer_: Commencing gameplay...literally for me. I have to play through the levels before I can write the chapter. (Thankfully my emulator has quick save and quick load)

_Shippo's Ramen_:

_Pokelad_: Better? ...umm thanks. No much I can really say to that.

* * *

The sun lazily rose into the sky, casting its bright orange light over the world of Mobius as it continued its endless path across the sky. The bright rays of light soon reached the moderately large, and rather interestingly vegetated, island that had been named SouthSide by its inhabitants.

The sun also awoke a rather tired Tails, who slowly opened his eyes and found it irritatingly difficult to wipe the sleep from his eyes. Glancing down that fox smiled when he saw how possessive the hedgehog had been last night. The hedgehog was holding him in a tight hug, his arms almost pinned against his sides. Luckily sleep made Sonic rather limp and the only thing really holding the fox down was how heavy his friend was.

Tails slowly extracted his furry body from the warm embrace, taking care to ensure his protector would continue to enjoy his restful sleep, and slowly inspected the biplane. If he was going to sum it up in one word, screwed would've probably have been a viable choice.

"There's no way I'm gonna be able to fix this." Tails muttered to himself as he quietly inspected the damage, trying to ignore the dull ache coming from his sprained arm. "Last time it was only in pieces. This time, with the rear cables snapped, I'm missing parts."

Tails sighed loudly. "What on Mobius am I going to do?" He asked himself. "Sonic is going to be expecting me to fix his plane, and I don't think it's something that I can do."

"Don't bother then." Sonic suddenly told him. The fox had been so worried about letting down his friend, that he hadn't even realized that the hedgehog had already woken up. "Something tells me that we've got something a lot more important to do. That weird Doctor guy is back and someone's going to have to stop him."

Tails rolled his eyes in irritation. "Why do you think it's our responsibility?" He asked, clearly not in favour of the idea. "I'm sure there is going to be someone else who can sort it out for us. I mean, come on, you stopped him last time, so it's someone else's turn."

Sonic chuckled. "I was the only one who bothered last time, what makes you think this time will be any different?"

Tails shrugged. "I dunno. I just kind of hoped that people would be ...nice." He muttered turning away from his friend. "So, what do we do now?"

Sonic didn't answer, instead he merely shrugged. "How would I know? There isn't really much-"

Unfortunately it was right at this point that the hedgehog's words were cut short by the sudden appearance of a horribly loud growl of an enormous engine. Jumping to their feet, the two heroes looked off into the dense bushland that boarded the empty beach, the thick shrubbery obstructing their view past a few yards. Luckily that sound wasn't nearby, the sound was simply echoing around the area.

"Stay back" Sonic commanded Tails with his voice wavering slightly, betraying how worried the hedgehog was feeling. The hedgehog slowly walked forward towards the possible source of danger. The harsh growl was growing louder and louder and something told Sonic that something bad was on its way to face them.

Tails, however, ignored the command and instead span his tails and took off into the sky, surprising the hedgehog, who had turned at the sudden sounds of a fox flying. The young fox quickly checked out the forest, and was horrified with what he saw. He quickly dropped back down, slowing his descent at the last possible second, forcing his tails to work overtime.

"How on Mobius did you do that?" Sonic asked, the sudden appearance of such an amazing, and impossible, ability was clearly not something that he expected. "Where'd you learn how to do that?"

Tails, however, was too warn out from the impossible act and merely panted heavily trying to catch his breathe. After a few seconds of slow breathing the small fox looked up at his hero, his breathing still laboured. "I've always been able to do it." He told Sonic shyly. "But we kind of have something more important to worry about."

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked, glancing around then, surveying the area, looking for any viable threats. "What did you see?"

"The evil guy that kidnapped me is heading this way." Tails said to Sonic, his voice wavering in fear. "He's in this weird flying thing-"

Noticing his friends fear, Sonic quickly cut him off. "Don't worry, Tails. If he reaches us I'll just bash the fatty up and we'll be on our way like normal. What we should be thinking about is where the closest city is so we can alert everyone."

Tails sighed. "I guess so. It's just that something tells me that it's not going to be that simple."

"It will be if you stop over thinking everything." Sonic told his young friend. "Now, come on. We've got an island to save." The blue hedgehog smirked his tell tale smile and took off, stopping a few yards ahead waiting for Tails to follow. Tails, feeling strangely invigorated by the chance at a new adventure, quickly followed his hero.

Little did they know that even this small journey wasn't going to be easy.

**

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Sonic was having a blast. The feeling of his feet rapidly hitting the ground, propelling his lightweight body at such extreme speeds was excessively intense. Sonic was enjoying shooting along the ground so much that he couldn't help complaining when he saw Tails lagging behind. "Come on, Tails." Sonic whined. "We're not even going full speed. Can't you go a little faster?"

Tails simply threw a rather irritated look at Sonic, skidding along the ground to avoid a small shrub. "I can't go as fast as you, idiot." He complained weakly, his voice faint from the exertion.

Now, contrary to what you might've assumed, Sonic wasn't trying to be mean to his young friend. He actually genuinely believed that his friend could keep up with him, and to a certain extent he was right. However Sonic also realized that unlike Tails, Sonic had had the benefit of freedom and good health to support his pastime. Tails hadn't had much time to obtain such skills, and his stamina was far from the blue hedgehog's.

Realizing that the fast pace simply wasn't one that Tails could sustain, Sonic slowed down to a brisk jog, sighing as he heard the weary breathes from the tired fox beside him. "Sorry about that." he told the fox apologetically. "I kind of forgot to keep an eye on my speed." Tails merely nodded in response, while he wiped some sweat from his brow. 'Next time, if I really need to go full speed, I'll carry you instead."

"Thanks." Tails replied, still weary from his tiring sprint.

Soon Tails gained back his breathe and they were able to continue along at a much more reasonable rate through the bright forest that surrounded them. Little did they know that they were about to come across the first of many problems that would plague their journey.

The strange loud roar that they previously had only heard in the distance suddenly erupted from above them. The sound of grinding gears and rough treatment of the engine was now clearly audible to the both. Tails' ears folded against the sides of his head in an attempt to reduce the harsh sound. Sonic, however, didn't waste time with such pleasantries and instead grabbed a tight hold on Tails' arm and pulled him away from the rapidly oncoming sound. It was not a moment too soon.

Before either of them could blink a massive robotic truck shot through the nearby shrubbery, missing their hiding bodies by mere inches as it rushed past. The engine was clearly working overtime, growling angrily at its rough treatment. The driver of the horrible monstrosity forced it into a dangerous slide; the strange attacker paused momentarily to choose another path. It was this pause that allowed the duo to finally see their inevitable foe. One glance and the two could quickly see that there was a very serious problem before them.

The large mechanical menace before them was easily twice as tall as them. The entire construction was of solid steel and iron, everything constructed to strength rather than appearance. The vehicle belched out billowing black smoke from behind it as it revved for another attack, it's massive razor sharp spinning blades on the front giving the two pause for a lot more than mere concern.

"When I say run, you get out of here." Sonic commanded Tails, preparing to run out and distract the driver, allowing Tails to make an escape. Unfortunately for the hedgehog, his younger partner wasn't quite so keen to just abandon his friend.

"No." Tails replied stubbornly. "I'm going to help you."

Now, unlike most people in the world, Sonic didn't even bother arguing. Instead the blue hedgehog simply sighed and accepted Tails' decision. "Fine" Sonic answered, his voice somewhat strained. "But you had better be careful."

"I'm not an idiot" Tails muttered, checking his footing and preparing for an attack. However, before either of them could spring a surprise attack, the massive robotic attacker suddenly shot forwards at them. It's manual gearbox complaining under the harsh treatment. The duo quickly jumped out of the way, throwing themselves into the deep undergrowth that hadn't managed to be flattened yet.

Irritatingly they jumped in different directions. However this soon proved to be more of a disadvantage to the attacker, rather than either of them. Sonic attacked first, leaping out the undergrowth, leaves streaming past him. He curled into a tight ball as he flew through the air, ignoring the laws of physics as he splayed out his razor sharp quills.

Unfortunately the Doctor had clearly spent a lot longer on reinforcement on the massive robotical enemy, and Sonic merely bounced off the solid surface, hurting his back in the process. But that doesn't mean that his attack didn't serve some kind of purpose. The sudden attack forced the Doctor to change his speed higher, forcing the engine to rev harshly, a poorly aligned gearbox grinding the gears slightly.

The harsh grating whine brought a smile to Tails' face. His mind shot along all the alternative of the source of the sound and the news was good. He quickly span his tails, ignoring the tiring effort such a move required, and shot across the clearing and into the bush beside Sonic.

"It's not going to last long, Sonic" He told the blue hedgehog quickly, realizing that he didn't have long to tell Sonic the attacker's faults. "He never aligned the gears properly, so a few hard hits from above the engine, or on the axel might be enough to kill the engine's drive."

Sonic was a bit surprised at the sudden burst of knowledge from the fox, but merely nodded in response. Sonic figured that now wasn't the time to ask. Sonic was right, it wasn't the time. As soon as Sonic nodded in agreement with Tails, the machine was shooting at them again.

Tails quickly ran away from the path of danger, but Sonic had another idea. He readied his footing and waited until the massive drill was about to cut into him. He quickly jumped into the air and landed, spinning, on the casing over the metal truck's engine, bending the metal. Unfortunately it wasn't enough force and Sonic quickly fell of the side as the truck quickly changed direction.

Sonic hit the ground hard and struggled to get to his feet quickly, however when he finally did stand he was both horrified and relieved to see that Tails had decided to play the part of a distraction.

This had to end. Now.

Sonic didn't even bother lining up his shot or waiting for a reasonable opportunity. Instead he reacted completely on instinct and leaped at the metal foe, hitting the engine's cover hard from the side, forcing it to crumple slightly on the inside.

However that was all it needed to fail. The bent metal pushed one of the gears out of sync and as the Doctor changed gears they caught one another awkwardly and shattered, destroying the main drive.

Sonic, however, wasn't out of danger yet. He heard a loud hiss from behind himself and, reacting purely on instinct, ran off the side of the truck as a loud explosion rocked the area, smoke billowing out everywhere. The thick smog obscured Sonic's view completely and it was only Tails' distance that allowed his to see the vague shape of the Doctor's ship escaping in the confusion.

The young fox momentarily considered making chase, but the though of being captured by the Doctor quickly changed his mind and he instead chose to help his friend out. Tails ran into the smoke and, using his dual tails tried to blow the smoke away from the area. Unfortunately real life was far from anime and all he managed to do was create a little bit of a breeze.

Rolling his eyes in irritation Tails was about to try another attempt when Sonic's arm appeared out of the smoke and grabbed a hold of him. Before a split second passed Tails was standing out in the clear air, with an arm that felt rather sore. The quick pull hadn't done the previously ignored hairline fracture any good and Tails couldn't help but wince at the rather severe pain.

"Sorry about that." Sonic replied, biting his lip in embarrassment. "But the good news is that we're only an hour or so's walk from the Chemical Plant. I'm sure someone there will be able to help us."

And with those parting words Sonic began walking towards where he assumed the Chemical Plant was, allowing Tails to pick his own speed. Tails sighed and slowly followed after the hedgehog, wincing whenever he moved his wrist.

It was going to be a long walk ahead.

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**A/n**: I wonder if anyone has noticed that the chapters have steadily increased in size.....hmm. Proably not until they read this...


	7. Chapter 6 Chemical Plant

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n:** Wow. There were a LOT of delays for this chapter. To begin with it took me a while to finish the second level (okay I got stuck on the third, not the second, but I like to play ahead of what I write) and then when I started writing the chapter the length just went completely out of control with the final sive hitting around 3400. Which is quite a bit bigger than the previous ones. And then when I finally finished, spell checked and read through the chapter...FF's login stopped working. It even stopped working when I was copying in the new chapter to the document thingy. But I've finally gotten it up...so that's all irrelevant now.

_AsherTye_: Thanks for the grammar tip. I'll try to fix that problem...if I remember.

_Shippo's Ramen_:

_Pokelad_: It's not that he doesn't want to stop him, more that he's scared of the evil idiot.

* * *

Surprisingly, it was Tails who first noticed the strangely acidic smell that flowed from the massive chemical plant. Or, rather, it was Tails who realized the problem. The duo were slowly entering the plant through one of the visitor entrances, that had been strangely empty, when Tails recognized the danger.

"Stop, Sonic" Tails suddenly commanded the blue hedgehog, grabbing a tight hold on his arm. "The smells are too strong. Some thing's wrong here." He explained as they cautiously continued their journey to find some aid for Tails' injured wrist. "A factory like this would normally try to stop any dangerous chemicals from having a direct route to the air. This area should smell like icky disinfectant or greasy, not...hazardous."

Sonic slowly looked ahead where their path joined a large metal gantry that ran over the factory. "I'll check ahead, you wait here." He told Tails as he started moving the check out the possible source of danger.

The chemical plant was one of the few environmentally sound factories of it's kind in existence and even the shape of the building had been taken into account to provide the smallest impact of the local environment, The majority of the structure was underground, with barely anything more than a few stories and exhaust vents were above ground. Of course this meant very little to Sonic, all he knew was that when he stepped out onto the old, rusted and rarely used gantry he could see almost the entire sprawling structure.

Sonic leaned over an old rusting metal railing, ignoring the threatening whine from the aging metal supporting his weight, and cautiously glanced down at the pale purple sludge that appeared to have somehow filled the lower sections of the massive mechanical plant. It was a mess, over half of the chemical plant was undoubtedly either in a rather extreme state of disrepair, or hidden under the potentially toxic liquid.

Either way, Sonic could tell that the threatening liquid wasn't somewhere that he wanted to end up in. His inability to swim was really starting to limit him. He carefully stepped away from the edge, frowning slightly as he felt the weak metal floor beneath him flex slightly, clearly straining to hold up his weight.

"This makes no sense." Tails suddenly announced from behind him, clearly not bothering to follow his order to wait behind. "There shouldn't have ever been so much toxic stuff here, and even if there should have been, it was probably not even kept in a way that would allow it to do this. Something is seriously wrong here."

"Yes" Sonic agreed, though not for the same reasons. "Something is wrong. I told you to stay back there, why did you follow?" He asked, rather irritated that Miles would ignore his instructions, particularly in such a potentially dangerous environment. "Why didn't you listen to me?"

Tails looked away for a few seconds, rubbing behind his head nervously while still managing to stay looking incredibly worried. "I...um." He tried to answer before cutting himself off and looking away, somehow managing to appear even more worried than before.

Sonic, however, quickly saw the issue and decided that whatever the problem was, it would be better if they just got it over and done with now before they had another fight against the irritating Doctor. "Just tell me what's bothering you?" Sonic told Tails, his voice beginning to become rather exasperated. "If I'm doing something wrong you may as well tell me."

"No, no." Tails quickly answered, sounding surprisingly panicked. He quickly turned back to Sonic and gave a nice wide, and entirely fake, smile. "I'm fine. Nothing is bothering me at all. I swear."

Sonic sighed loudly and crossed his arms, fixing Tails with a disappointed frown. "Come on. We've been friends for a while now....if you count a few days as a while...so why don't you just tell me what is bothering you. I'm not going to take another step until you let me know what is going on in that clearly overworked mind of yours." Tails bit his lip nervously and tried to turn away, however Sonic held him still, gently mind you. "Tell me." he practically pleaded with his fox friend. "I need to know so I can help."

Tails contemplated the situation for a few moments before turning back to Sonic and gave a small smile, though any idiot could see that there was some rather troubled thoughts hiding beneath the thinly provided emotion. He gave a loud sigh, taking a deep breathe to steady his nerves, and slowly looked Sonic in the eye. "I wanted to make sure you were okay, Sonic" he told the hedgehog, ignoring the somewhat confused expression he got in return. "I needed to make sure you were okay... because you have to be okay." The young fox's voice had started to take on a rather desperate edge and, for once, Sonic wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Look, Tails." Sonic began, before stopping again, trying to work out what he should be saying. "You don't need to worry about me, if I ever do reach an enemy I can't defeat, I could always just run away. I am the fastest thing in existence, after all. So stop worrying about me, I'll always be fine, okay?"

Tails didn't answer, and Sonic didn't blame him. One look into those eyes again and Sonic knew that there really was nothing he could do to console Tails. The fox was right, Tails really did need Sonic, and the blue hedgehog could do nothing to prove that he'd always be around.

The next few minutes passed in silence, with Sonic unsure what to say, and Tails to scared to speak for fear of making his friend worried, apparently unaware that Sonic already was worried. _What on Mobius am I going to do with him?_ Sonic wondered to himself. _I can't just let him follow me into what's going to obviously be dangerous, not if he's going to be so desperate to help me. It'll just be an accident waiting to happen._

Of course, Sonic never actually got to think of a decent solution to the problem, because it was right at this point that the duo found out that while the factory was devoid of Mobians, it was far from empty of enemies. The attack was instantaneous and violent. Something that neither of them had actually had experience with.

Tails had been checking out the chemical plants layout when a strange purple blue ball about the size of a baseball, though much more deadly, flew through the air at him. He instinctively ducked as the clearly dangerous item shot overhead, barely missing a preoccupied Sonic. The hedgehog didn't have time to react before Tails violently shot out at their hiding attacker, smashing it in half with a rather violent attack from his foot and tails.

The fox quickly stepped back from the ruined attacker and inspected the remains, cautious that it might still have some remaining functionality.

"Okay, what on Mobius just happened?" Sonic asked, understandably surprised at the young fox's violent attack. Tails, feeling rather nervous from his friends curiosity, didn't look up at the questioning hedgehog and timidly rubbed the back of his head. "Never mind then." Sonic muttered, making a mental note to have a quick chat to the fox later when they weren't in such a dangerous area.

"There are more of these robots here." Tails told Sonic quietly, somehow managing to obtain this relevant information from the destroyed robot. He cautiously reached over to the robot and withdrew a small silicone memory board. "This little board can send and receive information, which is kinda different to the old AI designs the Doctor forced me to m..." Tails trailed off and looked away from Sonic. "Do you think he's captured another kid like me?"

Sonic sighed, it had been something that had been bothering him for a while. "Probably not, but I wouldn't put it past him. Hopefully he hasn't though. He did create some of the robots last time." Sonic answered, hoping that he was actually telling the truth. "How did you know how to destroy the robot so easily?"

"Well, the Doctor isn't very good at defences from above, he mainly strengthens horizontal vector forces, so a few hits from above should normally knock the drive train out of alignment." Tails answered, his words becoming just a bit too long for Sonic to understand, and just a bit creepy when you consider they are coming from a ten year old. "He really has a problem with underestimation."

"Riiight, I so understood everything." Sonic replied sarcastically, clearly not bothering to even attempt to comprehend. "So, I just need to hit the robots from above. What do I do for spiky robots?"

Tails shrugged, feeling slightly peeved with the hedgehog's dismissal of his story. "I dunno, jump."

Of course it was at this time that their conversation was rudely interrupted by the appearance. of a loud scream that echoed throughout the still eerily quiet factory. Sonic reacted first and, ignoring the idea of a sensible reaction, started running towards the potential danger. Tails followed slowly, knowing that there was no point in rushing towards anything that could hurt you. However when they got to the source of the scream, they were surprised to see that the situation was far more risky that before. Before then a large group of Mobians, clearly the normal workers of the large chemical plant, were trapped, surrounded by a ring of rather dangerous robots.

Sonic was about to go charging in when he felt the restraining arm of Tails. He turned to push the fox off, deciding that it was more important to save those in trouble than to worry about feelings that could be helped later. However from the look of the fox beside him, particularly his rather resolute stare, he could see that Tails had something important to say.

"What is is" Sonic hissed quietly, thankful that he hadn't yet managed to walk out of his cover completely. "We don't have long before the idiot decides to have some fun terrorising his prisoners."

"I know" Tails hissed back angrily. "I kinda of have first hand experience. I stopped you because you weren't thinking. He has actually used his mind for once and it's a trap. Look at the ceiling if you don't get it."

Sonic quickly glanced up at the bare metal roof that hung over the prisoners and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just some random robotical claws that Sonic assumed were used to move heavy things around. "There's nothing up there." He whispered back, studying the roof and trying to work out what had made the fox so worked up. Luckily he was so intent on his search for danger that he didn't hear Tails mutter something about him been particularly idiotic.

"This part of the factory treats chemicals directly, and there is nothing stored where those claws are installed. They were added by the Doctor, and if you bothered to look closer you'd see some small packages of explosives strapped to the side of the claws." Tails whispered back, not even bothering to hide his irritation. "So if you go out there are try and help them, you'll just get captured, or have one of them killed. I don't know what you're going to do to help them."

"Oh" Sonic replied, finally noticing the finer details the the fox had somehow picked up. However, just because the fox was stuck, didn't mean that Sonic didn't have a plan. "Well then I guess we're just going to have to both go for it. I'll get the lower robots while you sort out the higher robots. Think you can handle it?"

Tails merely nodded, surveying the ceiling for other potential threats. "I'll try. But you've got to remember that I can't move as quickly as you."

"Gotcha" Sonic answered before preparing to bolt out into the open. "Let's go."

As soon as those simple words were out of Sonic's mouth, the hedgehog shot forwards, intent on help everyone in need regardless of the cost or risk. The fox soon followed with his tails spinning wildly behind him. Their rapid movements generating truly impossible amount of lift, forcing his light weight body into the air and straight towards the first hidden menace. Both of the heroes were depending on one another. If Tails failed, Sonic would be up against explosive attacks from above, and if Sonic failed, Tails would be having difficult avoiding the brutal attacks from the ground.

The both reached their targets at the same time, and neither hesitated. Sonic curled up and slammed his body harshly into the smaller robotic adversary, gaining the attention of every single enemy within a couple hundred feet, while Tails whipped his tails through the air, precisely cutting the power supplies and detonators from the closest robotic claw, reducing the dangerous plastic explosives to useless chunks.

A large robot fired upon Sonic, quickly followed by three others, however the hedgehog was far from nervous about such an attacks. He merely used his legendary speed to avoid the attacks and dive beneath the dangerous barrage and cut through the basses of his attackers, enjoying the sounds of controlled destruction around him, each shattered piece of metal boosting his ego.

Tails, however, wasn't quite enjoying himself quite so much. While the hedgehog was dealing with much more dangerous problems, Tails knew that if he screwed up, it would be game over for everyone. A few explosives sparked and the entire roof would shatter, pelting both Sonic, Tails, and the captured workers with deadly shrapnel. The fact that the claws had become aware of his presence and were twisting rapidly, trying to grab him in their lethal hold, also didn't help.

Of course, he knew that Sonic really was depending on him and that giving up was really much of an option at this point. So he kept going, ignoring the pain in his wrist and the small cuts that a few close calls with the claws had given him.

Far down below, Sonic was going a bit better than his flying counter part, and he'd managed to take down almost all of the robots. He could tell from the weak attacks that the Doctor had clearly just meant the robots to be distractions. Of course, it still wasn't what you would call safe, and Sonic was still forced to duck to avoid a savage attack. Thankfully by this point, most of the workers had worked out that, with their robotic guards either destroyed or distracted, they could help Sonic against the few that remained.

A loud crash caught Sonic by surprise when one of the robots were attacked from behind with some savage attacks from the workers. Unfortunately the armour was still sufficiently strong enough to merely deflect the blows and the end result was an injured foot and two hurt hands.

"Don't bother helping." Sonic yelled out as he slashed through the top of one of the robots, spotting the weakened seams that were apparently mainly designed against sideways attacks. "Just get out of here."

The workers did what they were told and ran off, making sure that they were a reasonable distance away before turning around and looking for a way to help. The workers weren't really what you would call cowardly, the problem was mainly that they were simply completely freaking useless. Luckily they noticed this before they tried to hinder Sonic through another attempt at helping.

Tails finally destroyed the last of the claws and pushed himself away from the ceiling, slowing his tails enough to let him fall to the ground, stopping his fall at the last minute. Of course, he wasn't jumping straight into the short battle between Sonic and the last robot, instead landing behind the hedgehog and panted loudly, trying to catch his breath. Consistent hovering takes a lot energy.

Sonic, however, wasn't all that concerned about his friend, he had a large robot to deal with instead. Not that the match was going to last long. One of the projectile launchers of the robot had already been snapped off by Sonic and the blue hedgehog was ready for another attack. His feet shot along the ground, the friction alone leaving large burnt stretches in the concrete, and shot towards the foe at a speed much faster than the basic movement sensors could manage. He jumped into the air and threw out his legs, impacting heavily on the side of the previously solid robot.

The strain was too much as the metal casing gave way beneath that extreme forces, splitting along the seams and falling apart at Sonic's feet. "Now that is how you destroy an enemy." Sonic told himself, puffing slightly from the fight. He turned and found an equally, if not more so, tired fox standing behind him. "Whoa, you really look tired, Tails."

"That's because I am" Tails answered, his voice weary and his eyes feeling rather sore. "But I'll be fine in a couple of minutes." He slowly checked out the area and was rather happy to see the workers had all made it to safety. "So, is everyone okay?"

"Yeah." Sonic carelessly answered, not bothering to even check on those that they had saved. "How's your wrist?"

Tails bit his lip and couldn't help unconsciously rubbing the injured hand. "It's fine." He lied. His wrist had been hurting for a while now and he was becoming rather concerned that he'd broken something, however he was afraid to disappoint Sonic and admit that he cold only use one of his hands.

Sonic rolled his eyes, turning to face Tails directly. "I know it isn't fine, Tails." He replied. He wasn't very happy that Tails had started lying about something so basic. "Now come on and let me look at it."

"We don't have time now Sonic." Tails meekly replied, his voice suddenly sounding very worried as he looked behind the hedgehog, all thought of his sore wrist forgotten. "He's back."

Sonic span around and was equally surprised to see that the Doctor was indeed back, and this time he clearly meant business. The Doctor was sitting in his customised chair as usual, but this time the gas guzzling hovercraft had a massive tank of a strange chemical, one that Sonic suspected wasn't very good for his sensitive complexion, or really anything at all. The entire ensemble looked about as economical and restrained as hunting bees with a rocket launcher.

"What do you want fatty?" Sonic asked harshly, not caring how much he pissed off the evil idiot. "Do you want me to beat you up again or something?"

"Do you think that maybe you could not make him angry." Tails whispered to his hero meekly, biting his lip nervously while he waited for the inevitable attack from the Doctor. "When he gets angry he does even worse things."

Clearly judging the obvious threat as frivolous, Sonic ignored the swearing Doctor and turned to Tails, more worried about the scared tone in his friend than the possibly lethal idiot behind him. "If he's angry, he messes up by trying to rush things, so don't worry. I'll sort him out and then we can get your arm checked out. Okay?"

Tails nodded, glancing again at their enemy. "Do you want me to hide again?"

Sonic glanced at his flying enemy and sighed. "Well, no. I could really use your hel-"

The doctor, clearly outraged at being ignored for such a long period of time, attacked angrily. if it hadn't been for the quick push from Tails, something that didn't do his wrist any good, then the duo wouldn't have made it. The poisonous stream of dangerous chemicals streamed overhead, the majority missing except for a few drops that fell onto Sonic.

The pain was instantaneous with an amazingly painful burning sensation coming from the tiny drops. Luckily, however, only a few drops had hit Sonic and Tails was practically unscathed, so the two were still ready to fight back. The pain hadn't exactly done quite what the Doctor had expected and had merely made Sonic be filled with a feeling of intense dislike for his foe. A dislike that was somehow stronger than before.

The Doctor's ship's chemical tank was down to half full and Sonic was worried that the next attack would be even harder to avoid. However Tails didn't appear to have any such reservations and, spinning his tails in a brutally quick spin, shot forwards at his attacker, flying in a slight curve that the small fox had guessed to be the perfect balance between speed and avoidance.

The Doctor twisted the finely tuned controls of his craft and fired after the fox while Sonic, realising that Tails task was nothing more than a distraction, went in for the kill. This time he didn't bother with any fancy moves, watching his young friend dodging the deadly acid already fraying his nerves to the point of insanity, and instead literally just charged at the weakest point he could, the massive glass tank. On impact the glass cracked spectacularly, the spiderweb of airline fractures almost covering the entire container.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough and the doctor was already rapidly refilling the tank from just beneath the surface of the platform, a strange pipe had somehow linked him up to the massive chemical spill that laid beneath their feet. To make matters worse the floor they were standing on was starting to erode from the chemical attacks and even Sonic could tell that everything was about to fall.

"Another hit or two should do it." Tails called out as he landed beside Sonic, panting loudly from such an exhausting flight. "But this floor's not going to last long."

"I'll finish this" Sonic muttered, some strange need forcing him to take control of the situation. There was no preparation, there was no though, just merely action. His feet shot across the ground, ignoring the tortured screams of the failing metal flooring,, propelling his streamlined body at incredibly speeds towards the doctor. He curled up at the last minute and jumped through the air, the sharp, quilled hedgehog sawing violently into the Doctor's craft, knocking the dangerous vat of chemicals all over the floor and causing massive damage to the flying craft.

Unfortunately, while leaping away from the damaged craft Sonic saw a rather large issue with his flawed plan. The large container of the dangerously acidic chemical had spread over the entire floor, ripping through it and ruining any structural integrity that it had previous possessed.

Luckily, however, Sonic wasn't alone and his fox sidekick managed to be there for him. Tails flew in and managed to grab a tight hold of Sonic, wincing at the rather heavy weight hanging from his injured hand. The duo, both of them feeling extraordinarily tired, came down for a rough landing on another section of the walkway, both of them panting loudly at what they had just gone through.

While the two heroes struggled to regain their breath, the Doctor made his getaway, realizing that he had once again underestimated his opponents.

"How awesome was that?" Sonic asked his quiet friend once he'd regained his lost breath. Unfortunately his friend had managed to somehow fall into a nice deep sleep and Sonic could do little more than sigh loudly as he gently picked up his friend and carried the limp kit back to a more hospitable area of the chemical plant. Hopefully someone there would have a nice soft bed waiting for them.

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**A/n**: It's up, It long, and I'm happy with it.


	8. Chapter 7 Aquatic Ruins

**A New hero's Creation**

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**A/n:** Awesome, this chapter practically wrote itself and I only got stuck three times. Excellent. Now I just need to go to sleep...yeah it's a little bit late, but not too late. I'm actually really happy with the length of this chapter. It was over 4200 or something, which is totally awesome.

taters4u: You left 2 reviews for different chapters, both with the same complete lack of anything actually said....kinda like my reviews actually. Anyway I'm glad you found it to be good instead of just good. (That totally makes sense to me)

petite-dreamer: Aw crap. i knew I forgot something, well I did mention that he was swearing a lot, and it's hard to keep things....nice when the characte ris that pissed, but I tried a different approach this chapter that is more in tune with...the cartoons. Anyway I hope this chapter is written better.

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Luckily for the two weary heroes, someone actually did have a nice soft bed at the Chemical Plant for them to rest their tired bodies. In fact, everyone had a nice soft bed for them, but they only needed two. Well they asked for two, but in the end they both just ended up sharing the same one. Both realising that the could take some comfort in being next to one another for a reason that neither fully actually understood. Neither of them cared why they found it easier to sleep when sharing a crowded bed.

The duo spent a peaceful night resting quietly in one of the worker's cabins, the surprisingly homely surroundings subduing their nerves and worries, allowing them to feel surprisingly calm after such a stressful battle.

Of course, no matter how peaceful the night was, Sonic still didn't enjoy getting woken up by an elbow in the face. Somehow, during the night, Tails had managed to wrap himself completely around the hedgehog and Sonic wasn't all that glad to have a heavy fox cutting off his air supply, regardless of how tired the fox looked.

Sighing quietly to himself, being mindful of his still sleeping friend, Sonic gently unwound the tight arms from his body and pulled himself out of the small bed, making sure to tuck the fox back in after he was done. Yawning quietly, the hedgehog went off in search of food, knowing that a plant the size of this one was practically certain to have some kind of mess hall or kitchen. However, there was a rather unexpected consequence for Sonic's rather simply choice to find a early morning snack.

As soon as the hedgehog left the room the sleeping Tails noticed the absence of warmth and involuntarily whimpered quietly. His mind remained asleep as his hand tiredly reached out, subconsciously searching for the warmth that had left him. The young fox's hand searched the bed carefully, trying to find the warm mass that had kept him so comfortably warm. It didn't find any.

Suddenly feeling awake, Tails opened his eyes and looked down in surprise at the empty bed, wondering where his friend had gone. Now most people wouldn't have been very concerned about a person's disappearance in the morning, but normal people probably hadn't spent their lives alone and desperate.

Jumping out of bed quickly the fox surveyed his surroundings, feeling slightly disappointed that his friend wasn't waiting for him somewhere in the room. He slowly opened the room's door, carefully checking the hallway for danger before entering. Luckily for him, the hallway was empty and he continued along, hoping that whatever had happened to his friend wasn't very serious.

Sonic, on the other hand, was far from what you would call a dangerous situation. He was currently sitting in the modern kitchen of the Plant, chatting to one of the workers he'd saved yesterday while he was cooked a free breakfast. The hedgehog had been pretty surprised by the reactions by the workers when they'd been saved by to young teenagers.

Sonic still couldn't help chuckling every time he pictured the surprised looks he'd gained after the battle. Even better was how thankful everyone had been. Just about everyone there had been practically worshipping their hero, and Sonic was quite glad that he'd helped everyone. At this very time, though, Sonic was actually chatting about something slightly more important. Fate also decided to choose this point in time for Tails to locate his hero. It's just a pity that Sonic's subject of choice wasn't something he wanted the young fox to hear.

Tails' ears twitched slightly as he picked up a few trace murmurs that he instantly recognised as Sonic, and he were close by. Tails cautiously opened the kitchen door and was finally able to hear the hedgehog's words clearly, and he didn't like what he heard.

"Look. I don't know if I can keep looking after him. I'm still a kid myself." Sonic told the other workers unaware of his accidental eavesdropper. "He's just a kid and I am worried that he's really going to get hurt, it's not like these battles are all that easy on either of us, and with the Doctor getting more determined, I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep him safe."

"Maybe you could leave him at an adoption agency near the Casino in Nights City. He'd probably enjoy been able to interact with other's his age." The cook suggested. "It's pretty much your only option if you don't want to drag him through another dangerous battle."

"Then I guess that's what I'm going to do." Sonic muttered, wondering if it really was the best choice. "Anyway, thanks for the help. Now where's some breakfast, I'm famished."

While the hedgehog was starting to enjoy his food, Tails quickly slipped silently back out of the room, his mind deeply worried about what his friend was going to do with him. "I can't go back into one of them again" he muttered quietly to himself, thinking back to past horrors. "If he really doesn't want me then I'm just going to have to find a different idea."

The small fox quickly checked the hallway, satisfied that it was still empty, and began thinking of a plan to sort everything out. It's just a pity that his plan wasn't as perfect as he thought. But, then again, what else would you expect from a worried fox apart from running away.

* * *

It didn't take long for the hedgehog to take notice of his young friends disappearance, a fact that was probably helped by the fact that he saw his friend run out the front doors of the Chemical Plant. And his state of mind wasn't really helped when he found a small, poorly written note waiting for him on his bed.

A note from Tails.

A note explaining that the young fox had overheard what he'd said and had decided that he'd overstayed his welcome. Now it was perfectly understandable for Sonic to get angry or unhappy, however he didn't. Instead the hedgehog was actually rather glad that the kid wasn't as dependant as he's originally feared.

Still, Sonic knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to just let his friend to travel home alone, especially under such false pretences. And it was for this reason the Sonic decided to chase after his friend and stop him making an incredibly stupid choice.

Meanwhile a rather depressed fox was sitting on an old dead tree trunk surrounded on all sides by miles upon miles of trees, hoping that his hero would come after him, but believing that such an action simply wasn't going to occur. A quick glance around his surrounding reminded him of the fact that he was hopelessly lost and he had no real hope for his future. Every direction led to nowhere for him. He could head towards a city, he knew he'd just get teased like he was at home.

He also knew that if he headed towards the coast he'd be stranded anyway with no way of making a swim home. As for trying to survive where he was, well it was more inhospitable than home, especially with no city to provide food scraps and Tails was almost certain that he wouldn't survive out in the wilderness alone.

"Oh stop complaining" He muttered bitterly to himself, the dark tones of his voice surprisingly scary when you considered his young age. "Nothing has changed and at least you got to know what it was like to have a friend for once. Even if it was only for a few days. So I should just stop complaining and start heading home instead of acting like a baby."

Of course, it was right at this point that fate decided to really mess with him. Stuck in his mental tirade, pondering the best way to proceed with a wasted life, the fox didn't even notice the small robotic enemy creeping up behind him. The strange mechanical marvel slowly moved, using the natural vegetation as a cover as it moved closer to it's prey. However it's job wasn't to injure, but rather to kill.

The robot charged it's self, readying for it's dangerous lunge, the AI mind planning to pierce the fragile fox with it's deadly drill. The fox would have never stood a chance if it wasn't for a stray reflection off the robot's reflective body. Tails glanced to his left and barely had enough time to throw himself to the ground before the deadly attack shot past him, the dangerous creature only just missing him.

Tails quickly pulled himself to his feet just as another attack bared down on him, however before he could react a blue blur shot past him as Sonic the hedgehog span straight through the middle of the robot, splitting the creation in two.

With the threat completely neutralised, Sonic turned his attention to the understandably concerned fox beside him. "What were you thinking Tails?" He asked angrily, his nerves transforming his worry into anger. "Why did you run?"

Tails looked away, refusing to look his hero in the eye. "I had to leave because you didn't want me any more. I heard you talking to your friends about getting rid of me." Those rather chilling words cut much deeper than the miserable fox intended and Sonic couldn't help feeling rather bad for his friend.

"Look, Tails." He softly began, kneeling down beside his sitting friend, hoping that he could resolve everything before nightfall. "You were right. I was planning to leave you somewhere, but not because I can't stand you. In fact you've been incredibly useful to me by helping me fix my plane and defeating those robots. Hell you saved my life yesterday by catching me before I fell to my death. I don't want to get rid of you."

Unfortunately, for all of the kind words, Tails still wouldn't look up at his friend, choosing to continue staring a hole through the forest floor. "If you didn't want me to leave, why were you trying to get rid of me then?" Tails muttered quietly, not intending for his words to be heard by the hedgehog.

Sonic, however, did hear. "I may not want to leave you Tails, but I don't have a choice. I can't go and fight the idiot if you stay with me. And I don't mean that you'll get in the way, I have a feeling you'll actually be very helpful, but I do know that no matter what you do, I'm still going to be worried about you." Sonic told the listening Tails slowly, he was starting to get really worried that he wasn't going to get through to the fox. "I can't have you with me when I intentionally head into danger, you're just a kid and should at least have a chance to live a normal life."

"What if I don't want a normal life?" Tails sudden;y asked, finally looking up into the eyes of Sonic, a strange light hiding in his eyes. "What if I just want to follow you to hell and back? What if the only person that I ever want to spend time with, is you?"

"Well, then you're going to be a very antisocial little boy." Sonic answered jokingly before returning to his previous serious tone. "Seriously though, I can't take you into a potentially deadly fight when you're so inexperienced."

"Oh sure" Tails rebutted angrily, seeming to completely forget their previous argument, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Sonic. "You're completely inexperienced, but you can go into a fight, but I can't. How does that make sense?"

"Because it's my choice." Sonic answered quickly, recognising the slightly joking tone of Tails' voice.

"As is mine." Tails answered quickly, not able to hide a smile.

"Sure it is, I know you would follow me to the ends of Mobius before you let something like an evil doctor stop you, right?" Sonic replied, their little argument completely giving out to silly accusations and completely nonsensical logic. "Maybe you should become friends with the Doctor because he's always stalking me."

"Nah." Tails answered, barely able to keep the laughter out of his reply. 'He's too gay for my liking and if he turns to quick he's know me toDownUnda."

"He's not that bad." Sonic cut in, recognising how deeply their discussion had deteriorated. "Sure, he's over weight but it isn't like he causes quakes every time he steps."

"You sure about that, he is always sitting down." Tails replied, chuckling to himself as he tried to imagine the Doctor walking, and failing. "Anyway, before I completely disgust myself with an description of the idiot's rolls of fat, could you tell me what we were talking about?"

"Well we were talking about how i-" Sonic began before he was rudely cut off by Tails.

"No, you idiot." Tails told him, pressing his palm against forehead in a sight of irritation. "You're meant to change the subject and we'd both wordlessly agree that our journey's into battle are our own choice, and not dictated by each other."

"Fine" Sonic replied, rolling his eyes. "You can come with me until we get to the casino in Nights City and you can make a choice of whether you want to stay or leave there."

"I'll never leave you." Tails quietly told the hedgehog, his tone of adoration almost worrying to hedgehog more than his words.

"Right" Sonic answered quickly. "Anyway, we've got to start heading west past the local aquatic ruins and into Nights City, and we should probably try to get there before night falls, okay?"d

Tails merely nodded before the two quickly headed out to their next goal. Little did they know that there was still quite a long journey ahead of them.

* * *

The duo carefully picked their way along the narrow forest pathways, wary of any potential enemies. They had already been surprised thrice by unsuspecting attacks and they were both keen to avoid any more. The attacks had been sudden and completely unexpected, each enemy clearly hiding and waiting to ambush their prey. Sonic had also started to notice that the actual attacks were becoming even more deadly, each move clearly designed to take a life. Thankfully, they had managed to somehow not be attacked recently, and Sonic was hoping to at least make it to Nights City by nightfall.

"How's you wrist?" Sonic asked casually as he ducked underneath a long lying branch, making sure to not spring the bush back into his friend. "Did they manage to help?"

Tails carefully flexed his bound wrist, wincing slightly as another sharp spike of pain shot through the damaged limb. The worker's at the Chemical Plant had tried to help him, but a broken wrist isn't something you can fix overnight, and Tails had found a cast too cumbersome to attack with, so in the end he'd merely wrapped it in a bandage. "It's fine." He lied effortlessly, finding it rather easy to lie to the concerned hedgehog. "I might even be able to carry you."

"Great." Sonic replied, happy that his friend was getting better. "Now all I need to worry about is a psycho megalomaniac who's dream in life is to murder everything in sight. Excellent."

"Careful with the dry humour." Tails cut in, recognising the sarcastic tones from a mile away. "Someone might take you seriously."

"Shut up." Sonic commanded, holding up his hand. Something had caught his attention. "I can hear something."

"It's probably just the Doctor." Tails muttered, continuing along the path ahead of his only protection, hoping that Sonic would just hurry up and move. "Now, come on. We've got to get to that city."

Giving the area around himself another cautionary scan, Sonic simply shrugged before continuing on his way. However he still couldn't shake the feeling that there was danger close by and it was coming closer by the second. "Fine. So we-"

However, just before Sonic could finish a second sentence a nearby line of shrubbery literally blew up in a nice large flame ball. Luckily for our two heroes, they were both bright enough to run away from danger and managed to avoid anything more that a few light burns.

The glanced up and the sight before them was one of both extreme horror and amusement. Before them the Doctor sat in his usual flying hovercraft, but this time he had an almighty hammer attached to the front. The hammer was so large and menacing that even the completely idiotic construction was still unimportant when compared to the lethal looks.

"Well if it isn't the useless vermin." The Doctor began. putting on a show of his distaste for his Mobian enemies. His hovercraft flew down low so he was only slightly looking down on them as the Doctor began a typically patronising greeting. "And how are we today? Ready to have your asses handed to you on a silver platter?"

"You're going to die, fatso." Sonic replied, his nerves already passed frayed, making his anger expressively explosive. "I will stop you, and it doesn't matter how many times you try, you will always be defeated by me, a mere Mobian ."

"We'll see about that" The Doctor forced the hovercraft to again climb back up to what he presumed was a safe height. "Now enough talk, it's time for the Doctor to begin his hunt."

"Oh crap." Sonic muttered to himself as everything seemed to happen at one. Tails was the first to try for an attack, however he was stopped by the protective hedgehog who literally grabbed the fox and tackled him to the ground. They only just made it, for it was right at that point in time that a massive deadly arrow shot overhead, actually grazing Sonic's shoulder as he moved.

Taking a quick glance back, making sure to keep a tight hold on his friend, Sonic saw that the doctor had, quite literally, smashed the massive metal hammer into the top of one of the ancient ruin's supports. The rather random attack had an unforeseen attack, however. A large arrow, that was easily longer than Sonic was tall, had shot out of what appeared to be an ancient improvised booby trap.

"Stay down" Sonic commanded his friend, his stressed nerves making his voice a lot more angry than he'd wanted. "I'll sort him out, and I need you to stay safe."

Without even waiting for a response, Sonic pulled himself to his feet and stop still, waiting for the inevitable attack. He didn't have to wait long before the Doctor attacked. However what happened next wasn't something that Sonic expected. As the arrow came closer, he was suddenly hit side on by an orange fuzz ball. Tails had apparently taken it upon himself to ensure the hedgehog would also stay out of danger. The two of them rolled out of danger and into a bush, staying low to avoid the deadly attacks.

"The arrows are controlled." Tails told him quickly as they lay pinned to the ground. "He can send them whenever he wants, he just pretend to control their location with the hammer, but they are all propelled by some kind of launcher. He;'s going to wait until you let your guard down and then hit you from all four sides."

"Gotcha." Sonic replied before slipping out of the tight hold. "I'll sort it out, you stay out of danger. I can't fight if you aren't safe."

"I know." Tails replied before he ignored the command and prepared for a surprise attack on the Doctor. "But you need my help."

Sonic, unaware of what his friend was planning, stood up tall and prepared for another attack, making sure to keep an eye on every move of the Doctor's. "Why don't you just hurry up and attack, or are you too scared?"Sonic taunted, hoping that anger would cloud the Doctor's mind more than it already was. "Or maybe you're so thick that you've already forgotten how."

"Shut up." The Doctor yelled back, sounding more and more like a child. An impressive feat with such a deep voice. "If you don't shut it, I'm going to kill you."

Another attack, another miss, Sonic dodged it with ease, happy that it was still relatively easy to avoid the attacks. "You're going to kill me like you've been trying to do for the last five minutes." Sonic yawned loudly, looking away from the Doctor in a show of bravado, hoping that it would psych-out his opponent. "Good luck with that."

"Die" The Doctor yelled, clearly Sonic's taunts were pushing him much further than Sonic expected.

However what happened next was completely unexpected. The doctor activated the hammer and pantomimed another blow on the Ancient ruins, a massive arrow soon followed, shooting through the air. And it was at this point that everything started to go really slow.

Sonic heard a strange whipping sound and span around to see Tails shooting out of the nearby shrubbery and an incredible speed, that still was no where as fast as the hedgehog's stop speed. The fox had an extremely determined look on his face, and there was simply no time for Sonic to stop him. The fox leaped through the air, his twin tails flapping like crazy to give him the required speed. He dived through the air, kicking off the shooting arrow, knocking it into the ground while knocking him into the air.

The attack was so random and completely unexpected that neither the Doctor, or Sonic could react before Tails' body hit the massive hovercraft, his feet somehow managing to land on the weakest point, Sonic suspected that the fox's move hadn't been completely deliberate. Either way it matter little, the attack knocked the hammer loose and the loosely hinged piece of metal span around, hitting the side of it's own holder, causing some pretty serious damage to the craft.

"I'll get you two vermin later." The Doctor yelled, throwing his craft into full speed to return to another base and start repairs. "You haven't seen the last of me."

As the craft disappeared into the impending darkness, Tails slowly brought himself down for a gentle landing on the ground. He wasn't surprised to see an angry Sonic glaring at him, however, before Tails could even start begging for forgiveness, the fox found himself engulfed in a hug as the hedgehog pulled him into the warm embrace.

"Don't you ever do that again." Sonic whispered, his emotions a strange mix of amazement, fear and relief at his friends actions. He eventually released his friend for the tight embrace and sighed. "What am I going to do with you? It's obvious that I'm going to need you, and I'm not sure it would feel right leaving you behind after you single handedly defeated the Doctor. How about you join me as we sort him out, once and for all?"

"You don't even need to ask." Tails replied, ignoring the fatigue that he'd acquired from the tiring fight. However he was still smiling and felt surprisingly happy. "It just feels so right that I have to do it."

"Then let's go kick some lard." Sonic told him, as they headed off to their next destination, Night City.

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**A/n**: Any grammar errors....will probably be ignored, I honestly can't stand working on chapters this long, copying them and making sure they are coherent are a pain in the backside. Seriously though, any critique would be nice and I always take the given advice...well mostly....sometimes.

Btw, to anyone complaining about the lack of water...well I managed ot mainly avoid it in the game...yeah whatever.


	9. Chapter 8 Casino Nights

**A New hero's Creation **

_Chapter 8 - Casino Nights_

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**A/n:** It took me FOREVER to defeat the boss in Casino Night. (Actually, truthfully, I still haven't). Oh well, at least the chapter is done now.

_Pokelad:_ Maybe, maybe not. I don't really have a plan so I'm just going to let things flow how they want to flow.

_taters4u:_ I do spell check them. It's just that I can never see error in something I've just spent ages writing, my mind just fills in the grammar gaps itself. (My real problem with chapters this size is that it is too awkward to use in Google docs)

_petite-dreamer:_ Sure, you can beta it (in fact by the time this goes live, I hope you have), though I have to point out that I never really did work out how to actually download the story, rather than preview it. SO I merely copied and pasted the entire thing instead. Oh well. On another note, 's html coding is a horrendous mess of repetitions and lack of indentation. I actually ended up pasting the entire thing into a text editor and restarting the formatting from scratch....which didn't work well since FF then decided to attack my code and messed it all up again. Oh well.

_Shippo's Ramen:_ I can do Tails well enough....Sonic isn't quite so easy though. And I'm happy you enjoyed Tails' little Sonic search.

_joelle:_ I fixed it, so that should make it all better...hopefully I won't make the same mistake again.

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Nights City was one of the most popular tourist destinations that existed in Mobius, and Sonic was actually quite glad that he'd finally gotten a chance to visit the money obsessed town, though his reasons for arriving there were far from desired. Nights City was a city obsessed with gambling. Absolutely everything seemed to somehow involve the theme, no matter how irrelevant or idiotic it was.

The city was well known for its large collection of casinos that practically owned the massive estate, determining the prices on everything from buying homes to using the bathroom. Luckily for our two tailed fox, the blue hedgehog wasn't about to abandon the fox here. Sonic knew that no matter how exciting or interesting the city was, his friend would still struggle to survive there, and he was actually quite worried that Tails would want to stay rather than follow Sonic's practically suicidal mission.

Of course all that changed when the two actually arrived in the city. The place was a mess. Everything looked either cheap or sleazy, and it was obvious that the city wasn't safe for anyone, much less a ten year old child. The actual residents of the city were in equally poor shape, every single one of them looking either tired or evil. Sonic reached out a hand and unconsciously grabbed his friend's arm, making sure to keep a tight grip and steer Tails away from any particularly dangerous people.

Tails, on the other hand, was finding the city to be an absolute marvel of modern technology; the massive metal lifts and floating platforms that acted as transport through the city were amazing marvels that Tails couldn't resist watching . He couldn't help but lean over and pull the hedgehog closer to one of the platforms to study the intensely complex construction.

"This place is a mess," Sonic muttered, making sure to pull his friend away from the broken platform, knowing that the entire place was probably just as shoddily constructed. He knew that this place was also famous for its habit of creating things that looked good and ran terribly. "Come on, Tails." The fox resisted, of course, but his malnourished form was still no match for the healthier hedgehog. Realising that he couldn't win the debate, Tails just sighed and left the interesting engineering behind, wondering why they had used such low gauge wires for such a high current electrical circuit for the elevator.

Sonic pulled the fox closer as a rather mean looking dingo walked by. Unfortunately the individual didn't stay away and instead came straight up to him, a knife in his hand. "Give me everything you have," the threatening dingo commanded the two heroes, completely unaware of the pain he was about to inflict upon himself.

Sonic sighed loudly and reached into his quills, pulling out two of the six mystical emeralds that he'd kept hidden in his quills since the air plane crash. He slowly studied the gently pulsing emeralds in his hands and looked up at the dingo. "You mean you want one of these," he queried, holding up one of the emeralds temptingly.

The dingo didn't resist and reached out to grab it, assuming that his targets were still afraid of a knife held in a threatening manner. He was wrong, of course. A fact he realized when he was suddenly hit in the stomach by a rather painful attack from the young fox, Tails' dual tails spinning around and impacting his chest painfully while the fox also punched him violently in the stomach.

Overcome by the sudden rush of pain, the dingo fell down with the wind knocked out of him. Sonic rolled his eyes and turned to Tails, a look of fake disappointment on his face. "You shouldn't hurt people, Tails," he informed his friend, trying to convey feelings of disappointment instead of his actual feelings of amusement.

"You were about to do the same, and I was sure I could take him." Tails told him quickly, glancing off into the distance to avoid looking into the hedgehog's faux-disappointed eyes.

Sonic, giving up on trying to teach the fox right from wrong, just rolled his eyes and kept on walking away from the injured idiot dingo. The two soon reached their destination, a reasonably clean building that looked almost out of place amongst the dirty city. A large sign that hung overhead proclaimed the building's purpose as an orphanage.

"I don't want to go in there, Sonic," Tails reminded Sonic, something he'd been doing almost non-stop for the last ten minutes. "I want to follow you."

"I know," Sonic answered tersely as he pulled his friend towards the building, stepping inside the surprisingly air conditioned building. "But I wouldn't be a good person if I didn't even give you the chance to have a normal childhood."

"Fine," Tails muttered, following his friend slowly.

The inside of the orphanage was lit clearly by a row of fluorescent tubes that hung almost limply from the ceiling, casting the room in a typical fashion. The room was mostly empty aside from a single desk with a rather bored receptionist sitting behind it. As soon as Sonic and Tails entered the building they caught his attention. Of course, the rather serious stare from the receptionist was irritating to Sonic and he couldn't help but glare back, surprising his onlooker who quickly busied himself by trying to look active.

"What may I do for you tonight?" the receptionist asked Sonic, ignoring Tails, his easily self-important voice instantly making Sonic want to him punch in the face, but he resisted the urge. "Are you offloading that thing here?"

Now there are some things you just don't say to someone who's survived explosions and robotic attacks, but apparently the receptionist missed the memo. He soon found out when he was grabbed and forced up against the wall by a rather irate fox.

"If you say anything like that again I'm going to - !" Tails would've continued if it weren't for Sonic's hand clamped over his mouth. He tried to yell a few more insults and obscenities before Sonic dragged him outside and out of earshot. Finally Sonic released his hold and Tails turned away, his fur bristled angrily. "Why did you let him say that?" Tails asked accusingly. He was irritated to say the least.

"Sometimes you just need to ignore idiots," Sonic told his friend quietly, pulling him into a hug and letting the fox rest against his chest. "Okay?"

"Yeah, I know," Tails muttered, looking away from his hero and gazing into the multitude of neon lights that lit up the city. The fox wasn't feeling too good and leant heavily on his friend, the passive reality of sleep beginning to overcome him. "I just don't like it."

Noticing that his friend was starting to drift off, Sonic adjusted the hug so that Tails was lying in his arms. Sighing to himself, he slowly picked up his friend's resting body and began a search for a comfortable hotel to stay the night. Looking down at his sleeping friend, a strange thought came to mind. "If you really want to follow me, I will let you," Sonic told the resting friend, knowing full well that Tails was too tired to really even hear what was been said. "And it doesn't matter why."

* * *

Finding accommodation turned out to be much easier said than done. Sonic walked for barely a few minutes before he arrived at a rather small hotel. Sighing to himself, Sonic entered the establishment, ignoring the rather pointed views from some of the city's residents.

"Hello. I'm the manager of this small hotel and I'm glad to meet you, Sonic," The manager greeted him, waiting behind the old hotel's counter, watching an ancient television that looked older than Mobius itself. "Do you want to have a room? Free of charge, of course."

Now such an offer requires a suitable response, one that Sonic didn't exactly have. "Huh," he asked in confusion. "How do you know my name?"

The manager chuckled and turned the television to face the hedgehog and his sleeping friend who was still curled up in his arms. On the screen a news report was playing the Doctor's horrific attacks on the Chemical Plant, and Sonic was shocked to see that the media had somehow gotten footage of him saving the workers. Noticing the confused look of the hedgehog, the manager turned up the audio.

_"Sources tell us that the hedgehog seen here is known only as Sonic and he has been following the Doctor, stopping the nefarious attacks ever since the Doctor first attacked the surrounding area of Green Hill Zone. Rumours have been spread that this hero doesn't work alone, and a younger two-tailed fox has been seen with him recently. We have no further information available at this time, however, we will endeavour to keep you informed. This is Carly Shay reporting for Channel 701 News."_

"That explains a lot," Sonic muttered. "So, I'm like a hero?" he asked. "Because it certainly didn't feel all that...heroic."

"Are you kidding?" the manager cut in, clearly surprised that the hedgehog that had literally saved countless lives wouldn't even realize what he'd done. "That Doctor has been terrorizing the islands for years, and it's about time someone sorted him out. The police force has been practically useless against him and nothing any town has done has been able to stop him. You, however, you've gotten rid of him plenty of times. We saw what you did to his base on Green Island-"

"I didn't do that," Sonic cut in, not appreciating getting credit for something he didn't do. "He managed to do that himself."

"Yeah, sure," the manager replied, rolling his eyes. "It was just pure coincidence that the day that you entered that building it got blown up through no connection to you. I know he probably set off the explosion, but it's obvious that he was desperate to get away from you as well. You may not have meant to destroy a large number of his bases nor destroy the majority of his robotic minions, but you did."

Sonic merely shrugged. "Well, then I guess I am the awesome hero you all think I am," Sonic told him, his voice a strange mix between sarcasm and excitement. "Now do you know where I can get some cheap accommodation for the night? I'm a bit low on Mobians."

"Sure," The manager replied. "I'll let you and your fr-"

Fate really seemed to hate Sonic, because it was right at this point that everything went to hell. The manager would have finished his sentence, if it wasn't for the extremely loud roar of what could only mean one thing: the Doctor was there. Sonic didn't waste any time. He quickly checked on Tails, making sure he was comfortable before he ran outside to face the evil idiot.

Outside he was rather shocked to see that a nearby casino, incidentally one of the largest of the city, had a massive smoking hole where something had clearly hit it. The situation was a world apart from what Sonic had ever faced before. Normally the area was reasonably vacant, or the residents had at least run away; this time people were literally everywhere, struggling to find a quick exit through the bustling crowds. The situation was getting more and more dangerous and Sonic hadn't even seen the Doctor yet.

Growling angrily at the thought of the Doctor causing so much pain for those involved, Sonic decided that this time he'd chase the Doctor, rather than wait for the inevitable attack. He charged through the haphazardly swinging doors of the Casino, ignoring the surprised looks of the Mobian trapped inside, and rushed to the back of the Casino. The Doctor was undoubtedly attempting to steal everything of value from the casino, and Sonic knew that the Doctor's greed could swiftly end many lives.

Little did Sonic know that he wasn't the only one going into the fight, for back at the small hotel, Tails was slowly waking up; the sounds of explosions and screams weren't very productive when it comes to sleeping. The fox, realizing that something certainly dangerous was occurring, rushed outside, knowing that he needed to get out there and follow his hero before something bad happened.

Sonic, on the other hand, had finally found the Doctor. He'd been searching through the seemingly random layout of the casino, when he'd suddenly, and literally, stumbled into a massive slot machine designed for actual Mobians to physically interact with the multitude of intricate components that made up the gambling machines. The massive structure was somewhat a centre piece of the Casino, and the Doctor was waiting there. Luckily for Sonic, the Doctor hadn't managed to notice his presence and Sonic quickly hid behind some nearby slot machines and listened in on the Doctor's soliloquy.

"With the emerald and other special jewels of this place, everything will be ready," the Doctor told himself happily as he checked the large collection of 'recovered' machinery before himself. Nearby some of his robotic minions were hauling away some of the electronics. "I'll only have a few more stops before I have enough resources to finish the Wing Fortress and the Death Egg. With them complete, this world will be able to do nothing but cower before my superiority."

The Doctor's words were undoubtedly a serious problem and the hints at such large plans worried Sonic. He was starting to have some doubts that he could actually fix this problem on his own. However, he also realized that it didn't matter if he believed he could do it or not. Either way he was going to fight the doctor until his last breath.

"I will stop you," Sonic muttered to himself as he checked out the area. If there was one thing he'd learned from his young friend, you should always check your surroundings for hidden enemies, if you had the time. Unfortunately, there was little that Sonic could actually see from his restricted view point, and he knew that he was going to have to just risk it and step out into clear view if he was going to stop the Doctor

Little did Sonic realize that his decision was about to be taken out of his hands. He had been checking the roof for possible traps when a loud crash came from the entrance to the massive slot machine. Before anyone could react, the massive machine started up, lighting up everything in a strange mix of red and yellow hues. Unknown to the blue hedgehog, Tails had finally arrived at the scene and decided that today was a good day to play distraction. The fox sneakily flew over to his friend, alighting silently beside him in a manner that would've surprised the hedgehog if Sonic hadn't heard his friend's tired pants of exhaustion. Sonic was a bit irritated that Tails had once again followed him into danger, but at least this time he wasn't disobeying an order.

"Didn't I tell you to stay at the hotel?" Sonic whispered quickly to his friend, glancing away from the Doctor in concern for his friend. "You know it's not safe out here."

"I had to come," Tails whispered back, moving closer to his friend to in an attempt to ensure that he wasn't going to betray their position to the Doctor and his robots. "I'm not about to let a friend of mine risk his life alone when I could help him."

"Fine." Sonic replied, turning back to their common enemy. "But I hope you're going to be careful. I can't keep an eye on you, especially with so many enemies waiting for us. So how about you wait here while I rush in and wipe them all out."

Tails glanced at the large collection of robots, but his attention was on a strange object that Tails had recognised to be yet another of the magical emeralds, this one bright pink, sitting on the Doctor's hovercraft, pulsing slowly to an unknown force. "We've got a problem."

"What now?" Sonic asked quietly, feeling rather exasperated with the entire situation. He turned back to his friend and was rather surprised to see a look of concern on the young fox's features. Sighing quietly, Sonic realized that this day was going to be a long one.

"He's got another of those weird emerald things." Tails whispered, keeping his eyes on the dangerous item. "If he gets them all, who knows what he could do. He'd be able to do practically anything conceivable."

"Well, do you have any plans for retrieving it?" Sonic asked quietly, knowing that his friend would've probably checked out the area better then he'd bothered. "Are we going to storm in and take it, or what?"

"One of us needs to distract the Doctor," Tails whispered quietly to Sonic, making sure to keep his voice low enough to avoid detection by the Doctor's security bots. "Then, while he is distracted, the other uses their super speed to snatch the emerald."

Sonic sighed quietly and rolled his eyes, noticing Tails less than subtle hint. "Why don't I distract them while you fly in and grab it then?"

"Well, we could," Tails began, already deciding against his own words. "But it would be a safer bet to have you do it."

"Yeah, safer because it'll just be you risking your life from attacks, that's all," Sonic answered sarcastically. "Why don't I try it my way, solo? I won't need to worry about my friend dodging deadly attacks."

"Fine," Tails muttered, looking away. "I was just hoping that you would want my help. Sorry to have bothered you." The fox made a move to fly off, but Sonic quickly pulled him back. The fox growled slightly but relented when he noticed Sonic's concerned stare. "What?"

"Who said I wasn't going to need your help?" Sonic told him quickly. "I still need to have someone to sneak up to the Doctor and distract him while I take care of his robots. You know how terrible his robots are when he isn't controlling them and they rely on their programmy things."

"Okay, fine," Tails replied, checking the ground for any uneven surfaces. "I'll do it, but you need to check out the definition of 'solo' tomorrow."

Sonic ignored his friend's comment and instead decided that it was time to take action. Without waiting for his friend to get ready for attack, a deliberate ploy to ensure he'd take most of the attackers, Sonic ran out into the open, literally slicing through the centre of one of the robots. The metal shell split into two pieces easily.

Tails, realising that his friend had gone into battle without him, growled angrily in irritation before deciding to take out his frustration on the Doctor, spinning his own tails violently to propel himself forward. The fox leaped through the air and landed on the Doctor's hovercraft, 'accidentally' kicking off the stabiliser.

Sonic curled up as he ran towards another enemy, rolling into a ball and enjoying the feeling of being able to completely demolish an army of robots quicker than most people could call for help. Mind you, that isn't to say that he wasn't being careful. There were Mobians stuck in the room who had been captured by the robots, and Sonic realized pretty early on that it would be a bad idea to tear apart a living, breathing Mobian.

Tails, on the other hand, didn't have anywhere near as many problems. The Doctor had sent all of his robotic minions at the hedgehog, leaving himself completely defenceless from any actual attacks. The only problem he faced was that of finding a way to steal the emerald from the Doctor's fat hands, a challenge made even harder due to the thick Perspex screen that currently stood between Tails and his target.

"Get off my craft, you freak!" The Doctor yelled to the unconcerned Tails who was currently trying to break through the shield that surrounded the Doctor. "If you so much as scratch the surface, I'm going to snap your little neck."

"Shut up," Tails muttered as he checked the shield's poorly designed hinges. The fox lined up a shot and kicked the weak metal tabs with as much force as possible, feeling strangely fulfilled when he saw the metal buckle, loosening the shield's seal, making it easier for Tails to open. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough and, with his still injured wrist, he was unable to complete the simple task. Glancing around for a solution, Tails spotted Sonic crushing another robot beneath another powerful attack. The fox didn't waste time, jumping off the hovercraft and heading over to the hedgehog.

Unfortunately, it was at this point that things started to turn sour. As the fox jumped off the craft, he forgot that the Doctor was still a viable threat, and he never noticed the small, red, spiked bomb that fell to the ground behind him. The fox was stepping towards his hero, calling out to gain the hedgehog's attention, when the bomb did what all bombs do and exploded. The sharp metal shards shot out, and Tails gasped in pain when he was hit from behind, one of the shards piercing one of his tails. He fell to the ground as another shard had claimed his foot and the stab of pain had been enough to stop him in his tracks.

Luckily, Sonic, realizing what had occurred remarkably quickly for someone fighting for their life, rushed to the downed fox and helped the kit stand up, just as another bomb fell down next to them. Sonic grabbed the fox and dived away just as the small bomb exploded, throwing another collection of deadly shrapnel around the room, the small metal slices stabbing into everyone but the two heroes who somehow managed to remain unscathed. Unknown to the two, the emeralds concealed in Sonic's quills were pulsing slightly, giving the hedgehog new found energy to face the Doctor.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a completely pointless exercise. During the second explosion, the Doctor had made a break for it and had somehow managed to disappear. Sonic slowly stood back up again, helping support Tails as he attempted to stand on his injured ankle. Tails' arms were covered in numerous scratches and bruises, though his most serious injuries were obviously the metal shards sitting in his ankle and his fractured wrist. Sonic wasn't much better; he may not have had any broken bones, but that didn't mean that the robots he'd fought had been all that gentle with him.

The fox winced slightly as he gingerly placed weight on his injured foot. Sonic wasn't feeling all that great either, but he felt strangely confident that their ailments wouldn't be bothering them for long. He closed his eyes and the strange feelings of the powerful six emeralds flowed through his body, healing every cut, scratch, or injury the strange feeling could locate.

The sensation was subtly comforting, and as the hedgehog opened his eyes he could somehow feel the energy moving over to his friend, healing the fox's injuries. Tails actually sighed as he felt his wrist repair itself, the bones moving back to their correct locations. However, as quick as the sensation appeared, it soon disappeared and Sonic and Tails were left standing alone in an empty casino, hoping that no one had been hurt by the Doctor's escape.

Of course, perhaps it would've been better if they'd been more concerned with the inevitable media storm that would soon occur.

* * *

**A/n**: Well that was rather obvious foreshadowing. As I was writing this chapter, I was constantly reminded of Las Vegas (not that I've ever been there) and that really shows how good the Sonic Team are for managing to show me the city they based it on(according to Retro-sonic)....with 2D 16 bit graphics.


	10. Chapter 9 Hill Top

**A New Hero's Creation**

**_Chapter 9 - Hill Top_**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**A/n:**This chapter basically continues straight on from the last one. There isn't really much of a gap. Oh, and Tails also references the prequel to this story, but you don't need to worry if you haven't read it. Btw, the poor grammar such as 'me and tails' was added on purpose. There is no way Sonic would ever pay attention to grammar.

Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, I had a lot of difficult defeating the Doctor in Casino Nights and I still hadn't actually gotten past him until I was 1700 or so words into this chapter.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

_Petite-dreamer:_ Thanks for 'beta'ing this chapter as well. And, btw, I don't mind if there are a few errors, just so long as there isn't any glaringly obvious ones. As for your way to avoid the little guy dying, well another way is to just beat the bosses quickly before Tails can close.  
_Asher Tye:_ In answer to your question, no. I hope you're enjoying the story.  
_Taters4u:_ yes, yes I watched a video or two. I would've watched a few more but my net just got slowed down. (Note to self: stop exceeding download limit)

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Leaving Tails to check over his disappearing injuries, Sonic cautiously checked the massive hole in the wall, the hole that the Doctor had thoughtlessly left behind him. He'd been worried that, with all of the severe damage, the building wouldn't stay standing for much longer. Luckily, the building hadn't been too badly damaged. The blue hedgehog returned back to his friend to find him nervously rubbing his wrist.

"What on Mobius was that?" Tails asked quietly as he slowly moved his previously broken wrist, inspecting it intensely to try and work out what the hell had just occurred. He cautiously flexed the previously injured joint and was happily surprised to find that it had somehow healed completely. He glanced up at his hero, noticing a faint glow coming from his quills. "Do you think the emeralds did this?"

Sonic nodded and reached into his quills, pulling out of one of the emeralds. It was pulsing slowly, outputting a pale yellow color. Sonic handed it to his friend. "I don't know what these are, but they helped us. So I'm sure that this could be able to help you as well."

Tails wordlessly took the proffered valuable emerald. The instant it touched him he felt a strange surge of energy fill him, waking him up even more than the battle had. He could actually feel the emerald pulsing in his hands. "Why are they doing this now, and not before when I needed their help?"

Sonic shrugged and motioned for them to leave the unstable casino. "They seem to have a mind of their own," he answered quietly as the two heroes exited the remains of the hotel and casino complex, both of them watching their steps carefully on the buckled floor. Of course, merely leaving the battle didn't mean that everything was going to be easy. Sonic glanced outside and sighed when he spotted a large media group that was clearly waiting for him to make an appearance.

Sonic sighed and turned to Tails and was surprised to see the fox casting nervous glances at the media, his wariness more obvious than the Doctor's plans. This was going to be a problem. "They aren't going to hurt you Tails," Sonic promised quietly, hoping that Tails would take his words at face value.

"That's not what I'm worried about," Tails muttered, subconsciously stepping backwards into some nearby shade, his survival instincts already becoming a serious influence over his behavior. "Either they are going to blame me because worked for the Doctor, or they are going to be annoyed with you for bringing a child into a battle. Either way we lose. So maybe I should stay here and be real quiet. That way they won't notice me."

"If you really want to, then sure you can stay here," Sonic told his nervous friend. "That's perfectly fine by me. But you have got to realize that if you keep allowing your fear to rule your life, you're never going to get anywhere."

"Sorry Sonic." the kit replied, obviously feeling bad about letting his friend down so much. He turned away from Sonic, his eyes quickly becoming downcast once again.

Sonic couldn't help sighing loudly, something that he'd noticed that he'd done more and more often at his young friend's reactions. "How about I go sort out the media, and afterwards we'll have a nice long chat about this?" Sonic asked quietly, hoping to help his friend through it all. "Will that be okay?"

"Yeah, it'll be okay," Tails muttered in response, hoping that the talk wouldn't be too bad. Feeling rather miserable, Tails turned and left, heading back in the general direction of the hotel. Sonic watched him go, knowing that the kid could look after himself.

"And now it's time for me to head off to meet the media who, I suspect, will become my own personal hell on Mobius," Sonic muttered bitterly to himself as he slowly walked over to the large group, becoming immediately swamped on all sides as soon as he was spotted. They didn't wait a second before launching into hundreds of questions.

_"Why do you do this?"_

_"Who is the fox?"_

_"Did you defeat the doctor?"_

_"Did you get hurt?"_

_"Did he escape?"_

"Who are you?" One particularly eager reported asked, practically forcing her microphone into his face. She didn't appear to be all that pleased when Sonic pushed the offending object away...and into the air. "What was that for?"

"Do you ever stop with the questions?" Sonic asked, feeling rather irritated with the entire ordeal. "Look, how about I just tell you what happened first, and then you guys can ask all of your stupid questions?" Sonic, naturally, forgot to include the fact that he wouldn't be waiting around for the questions.

With the audience of reporters finally learning how to shut their yaps, Sonic began telling them, from the very beginning - his first battle against the Doctor. Of course, he didn't tell the full story; he left out the fact that Tails had actually created some of the robotic enemies during his forced stay with the Doctor.

"So now me and Tails have decided to go up against the Doctor to try and prevent him from fulfilling his evil plans. That's the digest version, at any rate," Sonic finished. He checked behind himself for a clear escape but was stopped by a particularly surprising question.

"Why would you let that child fight such a dangerous battle?"

Sonic turned back and spotted the reporter, or rather, the ordinary civilian who had simply been there listening in on the story. "If I could let Tails stay with someone I was sure would look after him, then I would. But at the moment everyone I meet is either too irritating, or idiotic to look after him as well as I can, regardless of any evil Doctor. Not to mention the fact that the Doctor still has it in for him after he betrayed the evil idiot to save me," Sonic told him quickly, hoping that the listeners would understand. "I would like to protect him for everything, and the best way I can do that is by taking him with me."

Sure, Sonic was lying. His real motivation was that he needed the kit, and he was reasonably sure that Tails would never allow him to leave the fox. But he was sure that ideas like that would mean very little to the news people. In fact, Sonic was so sure that he'd answered everything important, that he took off towards the hotel without waiting for another question from the idiot reporters.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

When he got there he found a rather miserable looking Tails waiting by the door, his eyes looking even more downcast than before. Obviously the fox was disappointed in himself. Sonic slowly sat down beside his friend and threw an arm around the small fox, pulling him closer. Tails appeared to appreciate the warmth and moved closer, though whether it was a conscious or subconscious reaction is debatable.

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked quietly, feeling worried about his friend. Of course Sonic didn't feel all that much relief when Tails tried to 'correct' him. Tails glanced up at his hero and sighed loudly. "It's fine, Sonic," he told him quietly. "It's just that I kinda wish that I could do what you do."

"And what exactly would that be?" Sonic asked cautiously, his relative inexperience with helping the fox providing no guidance. He carefully hugged his friend, paying close attention to ensure that the worried fox was happy with his treatment.

"Well, I can't just go up to people and talk like you do, Sonic," Tails whispered meekly, throwing a nervous glance around them to ensure there were no curious onlookers. There weren't. "I just can't trust people like you can. All I can think about is what happened last time....I'm sorry."

Sonic turned back to Tails and locked eyes with him. "You can trust others, I know you can. So if you can trust me, a hyper hedgehog with some serious attention issues, then I'm sure you can trust a few others. Especially when you realize that if they are complete nutcases, I'll protect you."

Tails was starting to feel really nervous with Sonic's emerald eyes staring into his own and soon found himself looking away from his hero. "It's not the same. I had to trust you because it was either that or the Doctor and, let's face it, he's not all that trust-able. So our...friendship, I guess, was born of necessity more than any actual decision."

"Okay, I've got to ask. What kid uses a word like necessity?" Sonic asked, his curiosity over the fox's expanded vocabulary exceeding his will to find closure for the fox. "I don't think anyone I've ever met has known quite as much as you, and I seriously doubt you learned it all off the streets."

Tails sighed and didn't even looking up at the curious hedgehog. In actual fact, he pretty much buried his head in his own arms, ignoring the concerned stare of his friend. "Can we talk about something else, please?"

"Fine," Sonic answered, deciding that he'd need to work out what was wrong with the fox at a much later date, when everything was sorted. However that time was most certainly not now. Sonic was still a bit tired from the battle, and it was certainly time for the two heroes to receive a well earned rest.

"Come on, then. It's time to sleep. It's late," Sonic told his friend quietly.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Even though they had received accommodation for two, the young heroes still spent the night sharing the same bed, both of them feeling surprisingly safe being so near one another. Of course, the manager of the small hotel had been a little bit surprised when Sonic had asked for a room with a single bed, but knew better to ask. Something told him that it was probably a matter better left unknown.

Whatever the matter though, the two heroes enjoyed their night, sleeping peacefully for quite a few hours more than necessary. The next morning, neither hero waited around for anything and instead left early to ensure they wouldn't have to deal with any annoying followers, not that Sonic bothered to tell Tails. He didn't want to have to waste a half hour trying to sort out the mess that that would cause.

Either way the two were currently traveling through area known affectionately by the locals as Hill Top. The area was a massive lime and bedrock area that had eroded away quite severely in places, allowing lava streams to flow through it. The place was a strange mix of beauty and danger, a mix that both of the heroes had actually quite enjoyed. At least this place didn't pretend to be something it wasn't, unlike the gambling obsessed hell hole that will remain nameless.

As for why the two heroes were currently strolling around a deadly paradise, well, Casino Nights was situated in the middle of Emerald Island. The island itself was shaped in a bit of a curve, meaning that the portion that they were crossing was one of the shortest lengths there.

To cut a long lesson short, the truth is that it was becoming intensely clear that the Doctor was heading across the island, so that was where our intrepid heroes were heading. Of course, it wasn't easy going. The Doctor had somehow managed to infect this area with his moronic robotic minions as well and the going was tough.

Sonic watched with surprise as yet another deadly robot was destroyed by the overly eager fox. Ever since they had left the hotel the fox had been in a bit of a strange mood, snapping a bit and been very keen to destroy anything he could get his hands on. In most situations that would be a bad thing, but it wasn't for Sonic. With Tails been so enthusiastic, Sonic could concentrate on improving the fox's skills and pay less attention to his feelings, knowing that the kit could take it...hopefully.

Either way, Sonic didn't actually have a choice. Their survival was more important than Tails' feelings. It didn't matter whether Sonic liked the idea or not; he had to do what he could to help the fox.

"How much are Eggy's robots sucking?" Tails asked Sonic happily, kicking the mechanical robots. "Do you think that he will ever learn how to make a decent rival against you, Sonic? At this rate he'll never even manage something I couldn't face."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't be too sure about that, Tails," Sonic cut in, hoping to give the fox a little bit of perspective. "You know as well as I do that it is already becoming harder and harder to face the doctor, and it is only a matter of time before neither of us will be able to face him if we don't keep training."

"I know," Tails sighed looking over at Sonic from the remains of the tiny robot at his feet. "But why are we doing it? I mean, a teenage hedgehog and a younger fox are not exactly the best people to go up against an evil Doctor. So why are we doing this instead of someone else?"

"Well, someone has to do it," Sonic replied, glancing away from his fox friend and spotting more of the Doctor's idiotic robots waiting for the duo to come along and smash them to pieces. "We're the ones here now, so it's up to us to handle it. Maybe we'll get more help in the future, but for now it is up to us to handle the idiot. Just remember, if we decide to give up, there might not be someone else to take our place."

"I guess," Tails muttered, but..."

"Let me guess, you can't bothered?" Sonic asked cheekily. Tails merely shrugged in response. Clearly the issue wasn't sorted out, but had decided to admit defeat for today. "Whatever, we've got a bigger problem. I have a feeling that the evil idiot's ugly face will be here soon and we'd better be ready. His robots almost seem too lazy to even attempt fighting us."

"Fine," Tails replied quickly, happy that the issue was been postponed for another day.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Little did the two heroes know that the Doctor was waiting for them, his newly modified ship waiting beneath the lava. The Doctor watched one of his spybots as the small flying insect photographed the two heroes. The Doctor wasn't happy. Even his strongest drones were been used as nothing more than training for the fox, with the irritating hedgehog doing nothing but watching.

"You two freaks aren't appreciating my mastermind," the Doctor growled. Hoping for a little bit of revenge, the Doctor checked their location and couldn't help smiling evilly. "I'm a lot closer to you that you could believe," he whispered to his two enemies. "I think it's time for my entrance. I hope you are ready."

He flicked a small switch and laughed maniacally as his ship shot upward, spraying the deadly superheated substance everywhere as he broke through the surface, barely missing the completely unsuspecting heroes. The Doctor didn't waste any time and fired the first shot, a deadly stream of lava at the heroes, being careful to keep an eye on the hedgehog in case of a sudden attack. His ship had been modified heavily to withstand the intense heat and pressure that existed where he was, but the Doctor knew that it was still no match against the hedgehog and his impossibly strong attacks.

"Time for some barbecued hedgehog," the Doctor taunted loudly, enjoying the feeling of power over his Mobian rivals.

Sonic literally tackled Tails to the ground as he threw his friend out of the deadly attack. They quickly jumped back their feet and got ready for the next attack, both of them looking for the Doctor's inevitable weakness. "Get out of here, Tails!" Sonic yelled to the fox, his panic making him a little more harsh than normal.

Tails though about resisting, but instead followed Sonic's instructions, realizing that it wasn't the time to argue. Instead, it was time for action. The fox jumped into the air, spinning his tails violently to generate enough lift, and impacted the side of the ship. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought of the ship's temperature. The intense temperature of the metallic body burnt his foot and the fox quickly jumped away, choosing to hide and find a new plan rather than try the same stupid move again.

Sonic, on the other hand knew that the temperature wasn't going to bother him. He felt the emeralds in his quills light up and begin their work, casting his body in a strange, pale light. "This ends now, fatso!" Sonic yelled out angrily, his temper already past the point of no return at the sight of Tails getting hurt. "Either give up or die." He didn't wait for an answer and instead attacked. He ran at the Doctor's flying ship and jumped, violently spreading out his quills as he spun through the air.

Unfortunately, he also forgot to take all factors into account and found himself flying straight over the swiftly dropping ship. He landed heavily on the other side just in time to spot the last piece of metallic body disappear beneath the surface. The Doctor wasn't the only one angry now.

"I've got an idea," Tails suddenly told Sonic. His foot was hurting a little, but he knew that it wasn't serious, hopefully. "He's going to appear on the other side in a few seconds. So all you need to do is hit him as he comes up. He'll have no visibility for a few seconds as the lava falls off, so he'll never even see the attack."

"Gotcha," Sonic answered, spotting the slowly appearing metal as it rose out of the lava. It was time to end this. "But how am I going to get there from here? I can't f-" He didn't get to finish his sentence before he was suddenly grabbed from behind by a flying Tails. Hovering wearily, Tails carried him over the appearing Doctor, the fox's sudden fatigue reducing his capabilities in the air. "We're in a blind spot," the fox panted as he struggled to maintain enough lift to support them both. "As soon as you are ready, let go and smash him. I'll grab you before you hit the lava."

Sonic didn't respond with words but with action. The two of them were only twenty feet above the Doctor, but something told Sonic that it would be more than enough to cause some damage. As soon the flying craft's incredibly overweight pilot was visible, Sonic let go. He felt his body begin to fall. He quickly turned into a ball, letting his razor sharp quills position themselves in the most damaging way.

The impact between emerald assisted hedgehog and toughened steel was violent and loud. Sonic's quills did their work, digging deep into the craft's body. Unfortunately, the Doctor was still safe inside, shielded by the inner layer. However, that didn't mean that Sonic had done any damage. The massive tear in the metal body did more than enough to destabilize the craft and ruin any lava protection it had previously possessed.

Sonic jumped backwards off the ruined craft and was caught by Tails almost instantly. However, things weren't quite as perfect for the Doctor.

The Doctor swore as he heard the on-board computer complain about the damage. Things had clearly not worked out and it was time for the Doctor to making a strategic retreat... meaning it was time to run away. The panicked Doctor quickly revved the already over-taxed engine and took off, the heat from the lava already taking a toll on the inner shell as the ship shot along the lava river's surface.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**A/n:**Wow, that was...hopefully long enough. I know it wasn't quite as long as the previous chapter, but I got to a good point in it. It's strange that my hardest task was finishing the level....sonic 2 is amazingly difficult. It's also amazingly fun for a game from the 90's. I mean, it's more fun than most games that I've played. Man I wish they would make a 2.5D version of it....anyway, I hope you liked the story so far.


	11. Chapter 10 Mystic Caves

**A New Hero's Creation**

**_Chapter 10 - Mystic Caves_**

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**A/n:**The hardest part of this story is working out how to keep it interesting. I don't want to start doing what Sonic X did for their first season. This means that whatever plot points you think would be good, tell me in your reviews. I probably won't use them, but they will 'inspire' other ideas.(yes I will steal your ideas). To be honest, I almost lost interest in this story before I had some new ideas....actually I'm pretty close to just finishing the story now and leaving FF...but I'll probably change my mi.....forget I said anything. i just had a great idea.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

_Petite-dreamer:_ Hmm, you make Tails sound like a certain religious figure......nevermind. Btw, thanks for betaing this chapter. You caught a lot of little screw ups I assume, so thanks. Oh and you were right about what I was trying to imply...you know what it was...so I changed it to make it a lot less obvious. Implications are always more fun than obvious admissions.  
_Fos2Tails:_ Okay, I've tried to make the fighting in this chapter a bit better...and hopefully it will be better. So yeah, tell me if it is any better. (I used the word better way too many times)  
_Asher Tye:_ I don't really know what this story is centring on, I just write it. TBH, it controls me more than anything. But as for the foreshadowing ...um yeah, thanks for noticing it so easily. (note to self; be more subtle)  
_Taters4u:_ The game is getting a lot harder. Thankfully, i have quick save and quick load so I actually have a chance to finish the game (you don't know how many times I have died in the same damn spike pit in Mystic caves...  
_Shippo's Ramen:_ Thanks for enjoying the chapter. As for the emeralds...well let's just say that their usefull abilities are made somewhat irritating when you realise they only work when THEY want to work (which is basically my way of limiting the Super Saien effect...).

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Sonic and Tails, both experiencing the now-familiar feeling of weariness that always followed these fights, landed slowly on the lava river's bank. It had been another bittersweet fight. They had stopped the Doctor, but he had managed to still escape. The entire adventure was turning out to almost be a complete waste of time, and they both knew it.

"Are we ever going to be able to actually defeat him, Sonic?" Tails asked miserably as Sonic gently checked the fox's foot for any injuries after the fox had attacked the doctor's lava covered craft. "I mean, we've gone up against him a bunch of times, and yet we still haven't actually stopped him. All we seem to be doing is ruining his robots."

"We are just doing what we can, Tails," Sonic told his friend quietly, frowning as he noticed a rather large burn on his friend; it already looked infected. "If all we can do is stop his plans, then that is what we are going to keep on doing. Maybe one day we will actually stop him, but that day isn't here yet. Maybe next time." The hedgehog had begun wrapping a small bandage around his friend's injured foot, hoping that his mediocre medical knowledge would be enough. Of course, he knew that the fox was probably going to be feeling quite a bit of pain from the injury soon enough.

"Okay." Tails muttered quietly. He glanced down at the foot he'd managed to injure during their last scuffle against the Doctor. "So, how bad is my foot?"

Sonic shrugged and finished applying the bandage, deliberately ignoring the fact that it was about to fall off again. "Do I look like I know anything about wounds? If you are lucky you just won't be able to walk easily on it for a few days. If you're not... well I don't know. I can't even work out how to stop this stupid bandage from falling off."

Tails sighed and rolled his eyes. "Great. Why am always the one stupid enough to get myself hurt?" He tenderly felt the injured foot, gently rubbing it in a futile attempt to stop the dull ache. Of course it didn't help and soon the poor fox's foot was throbbing painfully. "Dammit," he cursed at his foot, feeling increasingly irritated. "Can't you do anything to make it stop?"

"Sorry," Sonic muttered nervously, feeling rather guilty about his choice to bring the fox along on this dangerous journey. He slowly helped the injured fox to stand, pretending not to notice the fox's pained whimpers as he placed weight on his foot. Of course, he couldn't keep the fox in such a state for long. 'Why don't I carry you then?" Sonic asked.

Unfortunately, Tails was proving to be just as stubborn as Sonic and instead chose to resist the hedgehog's advice and attempt travel on his own. It didn't go well; the fox had barely waked a few feet before he was leaning heavily against Sonic, unable to support himself on his injured foot.

In the end Sonic just ignored the fox's protests and carried him to their next destination by force, deciding that it would be quicker than trying to make the fox admit he couldn't walk well. Naturally, Tails didn't appreciate the hedgehog's choice, but he could do little when Sonic was determined.

o0o0o0o0

The two weary heroes eventually reached their next destination, a series of dark caves that ran underneath the massive mountain range that ran across the island, the ominous peaks reducing their options. It also didn't help that they both realized that they had a time limit. Tails had been pondering everything they had overheard the Doctor saying, and they both knew that there was very little time before whatever the Doctor had planned started.

As Sonic raced up to the incredibly dark caves, known only as the Mystic Caves by the few locals that lived in the area, Tails made his aversion to the dark known by jumping out of the hedgehog's arms, using his twin tails as added leverage. He landed, somewhat awkwardly, on the ground, leaning against a tree.

"I'm not going in there," Tails told the hedgehog simply, his eyes refusing to even look in the direction of the dark caves. "Maybe I could fly over the mountains and meet you on the other side or something."

Sonic, naturally, disagreed with the fox's choice. "I'm not going to let you go off on your own where I can't help you," Sonic told his friend angrily, hoping that Tails would start listening to him for once. "What would I do if you never showed up at the other end? Would I have to wait around for you, or leave you behind?"

Those last three words seemed to strike a chord in the cub, who sighed loudly and admitted defeat. "Fine. You are right," Tails replied tersely, feeling rather irritated with both himself and the situation he was stuck in.

"Why are you so intent on avoiding the caves, Tails?" Sonic asked quietly as the two continued their journey forward, the semi-hidden entrance to the mysterious caves only a few hundred feet away. "What are you, afraid of the dark or something?"

"No, of course not," Tails answered. It was a reply that he would regret in just a few short minutes.

"Well, then," Sonic told him, picking up the still injured fox and letting him rest in his arms. "I guess it's time for us to go exploring."

Tails whimpered loudly and curled up tighter in Sonic's arms as they slowly entered the incredibly dark cave. There was only one pale light source, the blue emerald, and it was nowhere near enough for Tails. If there was one thing that scared him, it was the dark, but the small fox knew that he could never tell Sonic. Of course, that didn't mean that he could stop himself from rather obvious involuntary shivers.

He pulled himself closer to Sonic, his hands wrapped tightly around Sonic's as his fear got the better of him. However, what the fox didn't suspect was for Sonic to suddenly stop and sigh loudly. "Look, Tails," Sonic began, reaching into his quills for one of the emeralds. "What's up? You've been shivering ever since we entered this cave."

"No, I haven't," Tails disagreed, choosing to ignore the fact that he was shaking as he spoke, a fact that Sonic easily noticed. "Everything is fine. I'm not scared of anything, especially not any really dark caves that look sc...Never mind." If there was one thing you could say about Tails, it was that he was a terrible liar, especially when trying to lie to Sonic.

Sonic, instead of doing what Tails wanted and taking the fox's false words at face value, stopped their journey and pulled out another emerald, allowing more light to spill out of the valuable gems and light up the cave more. Then, satisfied that there was now enough light for Tails to see him properly, Sonic sat down beside the scared fox. "I know you are lying, Tails," Sonic told his young friend quietly, his voice betraying no emotion. "But you have got to realize that I am here to help you. If you find the dark scary, you should tell me before we enter a dark cave, okay? I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"I know," Tails muttered, looking away from his hedgehog friend, feeling rather ashamed that he was so scared of something so childish. "And I also know that I shouldn't be afraid of the dark. It's not like I'm a little kid."

"Except for the fact that you are," Sonic reminded him, chucking slightly at his friends silly behavior. Of course, Tails didn't react all that well to the gentle insult, reacting by crossing his arms angrily and looking away from his friend and off into the dark. "Look, how about you hold all of the emeralds and keep the cave lit up for me?"

Like Tails, Sonic wasn't very good at hiding the truth either, and Tails immediately saw through Sonic's suggestion, but he still did as he was told and took the incredible powerful and valuable emeralds from the blue hedgehog. Luckily, before Tails could ruin the moment and try and force Sonic to take back the emeralds for fear of looking like a baby, a loud explosion suddenly sounded, forcing both of the heroes to cover their ears.

The sound soon disappeared and Sonic wasted no time explaining himself. Instead, he grabbed the young fox and took off into the darkness, relying on the faded light of the emeralds to light the way. This probably wasn't the safest thing in the world, as the emeralds barely provided Sonic enough light to see anything, and moving at such a fast speed dramatically reduced his reaction time. However, he knew that whatever caused that sound was important and he didn't want to miss anything.

Tails, on the other hand, was scared stiff. He had taken to literally curling up in his hero's arms and holding on tightly. His eyes were shut tight, refusing to even look at what Sonic was doing. This wasn't something he could handle like Sonic could.

Luckily, for both of them, Sonic soon skidded to a quiet stop. He held a hand over the fox's mouth as the slowly entered a light up section of the caves. Tails pushed away the hand and nodded in understanding; he would have to be an idiot to speak now. They both knew that there was something ahead, but neither knew what.

They rounded the last corner and finally entered the room that the explosion had sounded. Unfortunately, it was completely freaking empty. They had stepped into a massive rock cave, however there was little there. Tails spotted a few small spotlights left over from what had been another of the Doctor's bases, but he had clearly left.

"What made that sound then?" Tails wondered aloud, looking around the room as Sonic let him out of his arms.

Little did the fox know that his question would soon be answered. He had barely spoken before a small electronic bug, hidden in the large cave, turned and captured the entrance of the two heroes, zooming in on Tails. They were been watched and they didn't even know it. However, that soon changed.

Tails was just checking on a small electronic robot he had found half smashed on the ground, while Sonic was searching the tunnel for another exit, when they found their answer. There was a loud screech from above them as an engine roared to life. Tails quickly began spinning his tails, preparing to be in the air before anything could get to him.

However it was Sonic that first spotted the danger. A metal spike suddenly shot out a foot from a section of the rock roof, tearing the solid rock in two and raining debris down on the two animals. Luckily, however, it mainly stayed in large lumps, making them easy to avoid. Of course that didn't mean that it was safe, something Sonic found out when his arm was hit by one of the smaller rocks.

Things were starting to look bad, and then the Doctor arrived. That was when things really started to go wrong. The Doctor's craft shot out of the roof and buried itself a foot into the stone floor beneath, missing Tails by mere inches. Unfortunately, this was a bigger problem that it first appeared; Tails had been holding the emeralds, but he was no real match for the insane Doctor and his technical achievements.

Luckily for the fox, Sonic quickly scrambled to his feet and yelled the usual insults at the Doctor. "Get away from him, you fat idiot!" Sonic yelled, hoping that the Doctor's poor anger control would help them out again. "I'm going to kick that massive ass of yours!"

The Doctor knew when running away was a good strategy and wasted no time shooting back into the roof, raining more rocky projectiles at them. Unfortunately, one of them hit Tails in the back, the impact knocking him to the ground and the emeralds from his hands.

Both heroes scrambled to grab the valuable emeralds, but were stopped by a massive explosion of rock that rained down on them. The Doctor was making another deadly attack, and this time, he was really ready for them. Tails scrambled over the uneven surface of the dark cave as a large rock fell where he had just been standing, while Sonic grabbed one of the emeralds.

The Doctor's massive drilling craft shot out of the ceiling, spraying deadly projectiles everywhere, and landed violently next to Sonic. The hedgehog turned to look at the Doctor and noticed the massive drill sitting on the front, the drill that was slowly starting to speed up. Things had surpassed the normal levels of danger and headed straight into we-are-all-going-to-die-dangerous.

The deadly weapon shot at Sonic, and the blue hedgehog wasted no time and jumped over the deadly attack, hoping that the Doctor would focus on him instead of Tails. He landed behind the Doctor and readied another attack, but he was too slow. The Doctor's craft span around in a full 180 and shot straight at Sonic again.

It was with great difficulty that Sonic managed to scramble back to his feet and jump away from the deadly attack. However his jump opened up an opportunity to attack the Doctor, so when he jumped, he jumped backward into the air, guessing where the Doctor would stoop his craft, and shot down at the ground. His aim was perfect and he landed a hard hit on the Doctor's ship, smashing the glass cover, spraying the ground with dangerous shards.

Unfortunately, Sonic's violent attack didn't consider the idea of the Doctor surviving and he was barely able to scramble away before the Doctor span around and shot back at him. Things were somehow looking worse than before.

Meanwhile, while Sonic practically got his ass handed to him, Tails was using the break to scramble to his feet, ignoring the pain from his injured foot, and move in close to attack the Doctor from behind, at his weak point. Of course, such a strategy would've worked better if he had have been able to move quicker than a slow walk and the Doctor didn't have rear facing cameras. Tails was barely able to react before the Doctor reacted to spotting the young fox on-screen.

Luckily, the Doctor didn't actually attack the fox, and instead sent a feint at the kit before spinning back to the hedgehog and finding that the hedgehog had disappeared during the interruption. Of course, the Doctor was no fool and instead shot towards Tails as Sonic quickly grabbed the kit and pulled him away from the potential attacks. As soon as he had gotten Tails away, he jumped right back down for another attack, hitting the craft again from the side, causing little damage.

However, Sonic didn't realize that the Doctor was merely playing for time while his smaller robots shot in and collected the emeralds. Tails did. The young fox, taking advantage of Sonic's effective distraction, quickly began grabbing some of the emeralds. Unfortunately, the previous attack had given the Doctor's robots time to grab most of the extremely valuable emeralds.

Luckily, Tails managed to find the last emerald before a small scavenging robot shot out of the dark at the emerald. Tails reacted instantly and literally squashed the last scavenger robot with the valuable gem, smiling at the sound of it been squashed into tiny pieces of circuitry. Unfortunately, the destroyed robot alerted the Doctor to the fox's actions. The doctor reacted the same way he always did and threw out a quick attack at the fox in anger. Tails quickly scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain in his foot as he scrambled away from the clumsy attack.

Sonic took the break in attacks to attack the Doctor himself, aiming for the seal that surrounded the Doctor's seat. He knew that if he could get in there he could easily stop the Doctor and maybe even get back the emeralds. He lined up the shot quickly and jumped, ignoring the Doctor's yell, and crashed straight into the glass shield. This time the glass shattered properly and left the Doctor completely exposed to the two heroes.

"What did you stupid animals do to my craft?" The Doctor yelled in ager. "I will get you for that!"

"I doubt it," Sonic muttered as he charged again. There was no way that he would miss from this range.

Actually, there was.

As Sonic shot thought the air, the Doctor revved his ship and shot upwards and out of Sonic's range. Luckily, he wasn't out of Tails' reach and the fox shot into the air and landed on the crafts surface. Unfortunately, Tails didn't think about what to do from there and he was hit by the Doctor himself, a feat that most would deem impossible with the man's clearly non-athletic figure. The blow was rather light, hitting the fox in the arm and doing little more than pushing Tails slightly backward. Unfortunately, it was enough to overbalance the fox, forcing him to fall off the craft and catch himself in the air.

It also gave the Doctor enough of a chance to swing the hovercraft around and shoot up one of the holes he had previously drilled and out of reach of either of the weary heroes, the violent action pushing more dangerous rocky shrapnel to fall. Luckily, there wasn't very much this time around and nothing hit Sonic or Tails.

Sonic growled angrily at the disappearing traces of the Doctor before turning back to his fox friend and seeing if Tails had somehow managed to get himself hurt this time as well. Thankfully, the fox wasn't anymore hurt than when they found the Doctor and the only injury the two had sustained was a small gash on Sonic's back, as well as a few bruises.

Tails slowly picked himself up, ignoring Sonic's worried stares and glanced up at the dark hole in the ceiling where the doctor had disappeared into. "Wow, we are really starting to suck at this hero business," Tails muttered darkly, taking the Doctor's escape as more proof that weren't good enough to stop the Doctor. And with that rather miserable observation, the tired fox closed his eyes and practically collapsed into Sonic's arms. "Either way, thanks Sonic. I l..." the fox muttered tiredly, his voice slurring slightly before cutting out completely, as he started to drift off to sleep.

"Um, thanks Tails," Sonic muttered. He honestly had no idea how to reply, so he instead decided to pick up the now sleeping fox and leave the dangerous cave. Who knew what traps the Doctor had left for them. Little did the hedgehog know that the next few days would be some of the hardest days of his life.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**A/n: **There you go, another chapter finished. I'm sorry about the long wait between chapters, I pretty much hit a creative roadblock. I just hope that I will be able to finish this story before I loose interest....actually never mind. I just got some good ideas...some really good ideas. (now how on earth am I going to keep them G rated...hmm)


	12. Chapter 11 Oil Ocean

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Chapter 11 - Oil Ocean

* * *

**

**A/n: And with this chapter up and running, this story officially becomes my longest story yet. (The previous winner was the prequal to this story...so I guess I'm going well for this storyline). Even better news, I have finally gotten this story back on track. I was previously having trouble linking between all fo the different parts that I had planned, but now everything is going well. I can see where everything is going and I actually have a plan for how to tie everything together. I love it when everything just works. I actually know where I'm going with this and I have a whole lot more lined up for our little friends. Not to mention that it is now even more fun for me to write. Excellent.**

**Shippo's Ramen: **o.0 I didn't expect it to be realistic, but thanks all the same for thinking so.

**Asher Tye:** Glad you like it. I'm planning on more betweenn the two, but it hard to fit in as much as i would like without just making it a plotless fluff.

**TailsIsTheBest24: **Hmm, I so should've taken those ideas...maybe next chapter.

**Fox2Tails: **Yeah, I've noticed that I've started repeating certain little traits in these stories, I thinK i had it under control for this one though. I only used luckily 4 times in this chapter so I guess I'm getting better.

* * *

Tails slowly yawned and tiredly rubbed his eyes, struggling to wipe all of the sleep from them. He tried to slowly get up, but instead found out that he was surrounded by Sonic's arms again. He glanced around and saw that Sonic had somehow managed to carry him back out of the caves during the night. Feeling rather thankful for the hedgehog's actions, he gently unwrapped the hedgehog's restricting limbs and clambered out of Sonic's embrace. He was going let Sonic sleep for a little bit longer while he went off in search for some breakfast.

Tails tentatively took a step and was glad that, as painful as it was to walk, whatever was wrong with his foot was at least starting to heal. The pain hadn't been as bad this time around and Tails knew that he could walk on it if he had to. It was just a pity that the emeralds had not wanted to help him this time around, but Tails guessed it didn't really matter; at least he was fine.

The fox turned back to Sonic and sighed. "I'll check out the area. I'll be back in a few, and I might even be able to have breakfast for you," he muttered quietly before taking to the air, hovering through the air at a height that was only a few feet above the ground.

A short time passed and Sonic awoke to the gentle pokes from an overeager Tails. He yawned loudly, slowly opened his eyes, and was surprised to see that Tails was holding what appeared to be a handful of bugs. "What's going on?" he asked as he tried pulled himself to his feet. "What's up with the bugs?"

Tails growled in irritation. "I decided that I would get you some breakfast in bed," Tails told him quickly, offering the hedgehog the bugs. "I know they look bad, but I swear they taste better than anything else I could find."

"I don't think so, Tails." Sonic told him quickly, eying the 'tasty' treats with poorly hidden disgust. "I mean, do you really want me to try them?"

Tails frowned and started to pout in front of the hedgehog, clearly unhappy that Sonic was rejecting his offer. "I couldn't find anywhere to get you some food. As far as I can tell, there isn't anything resembling civilization for quite a while, except for an abandoned oil treatment plant, so I had to scavenge."

"Sorry, Tails, but this hedgehog only has preprocessed foods, nothing else," Sonic told him, hoping that Tails wouldn't get offended at his obvious rejection.

"That's fine," Tails muttered, glancing down at the bugs. Then, before Sonic could stop him, he ate them all, licking his lips. "It's been a while since I had cicadas, and the taste is just as good as I remember. They so beat out flies."

"Sure..." Sonic muttered, grimacing at the mere thought of eating such a disgusting snack. "But don't you prefer something tastier, like something cooked?"

Tails shrugged, wiping his mouth of the buggy residue with his hand. "I dunno, I just prefer these bugs over the absolute nothing we've been having the last few days. I don't like gorging myself and then having nothing for half a week." The fox shrugged and suddenly took to the air, before returning back to the ground almost instantly again; clearly, he was having a bit of a sugar rush from the snack. "Oh, and I think the Doctor is trying to cross the massive oil lake thing. By the way, are you sure you don't want some bugs to eat?" It seemed that the bugs also made the fox hyper, something that Sonic didn't need.

"I'm positive I don't want any," Sonic cut in. "What oil lake did you see, and how do you know the idiot is waiting for us?" he asked quickly, unable to see anything through the thick forest that surrounded them. "Were you really able to see him from here?"

"Yep. He's pretty hard to miss," Tails answered simply. "I saw his craft hanging out in the middle of some really big oil ocean thing...you'll just have to see it to understand. I wonder what he needs there."

"He might be just trying to lure us out there so we can fight on crappy terrain," Sonic replied, slowly stretching his back and checking his quills to see how many of the emeralds he still had. Two. "Now, come on, we've got an idiot to stop and some emeralds to steal back."

"But didn't you say that it could just be a trap?" Tails cut in, worried about how they would go against an organized Doctor. "We haven't fallen for a trap yet."

"Yes, we have - that attack in the caves was a trap. At least this time we will know where he is," Sonic told him, lying through his teeth. He was reasonably sure that they had arrived a lot earlier than the Doctor had expected. "We'll be fine and we need those emeralds back."

"I guess," Tails agreed, before taking to the air again, to spy on the Doctor, leaving Sonic with his thoughts. Sonic sighed as he glanced up at his flying friend. He was actually quite jealous of the cute little fox and his amazing ability. There had been a lot of times when Sonic had wanted to gain the upper hand on the Doctor, and flying would've certainly done that. On the other hand, Sonic couldn't do without his running ability, so the hedgehog had to grudgingly admit that he was fine without being able to fly; besides, he could always get Tails to fly him around.

"I envy you." Sonic muttered, watching the fox fly almost effortlessly above. Luckily, the fox didn't hear the accidentally voiced opinion.

"Um, Sonic? I think he might be leaving – so we've got to get over there soon. Tails suddenly cut into the hedgehog's mental spelunking. The fox hovered down and landed beside the slowly jogging hedgehog, wincing slightly as he stood on his injured foot. The emeralds they had in their possession had worked on his limb during the night, but it had only healed enough for him to walk on, so it still hurt. "So, what is the plan?"

"We get back the emeralds and then beat up the idiot. Simple?" Sonic replied instantly. He was starting to feel rather guilty about bringing the fox along to these battles, and watching Tails limp wasn't helping his guilt trip. "Actually, maybe you should sit this one out. I can see you limping."

"No," Tails answered flatly, obviously not liking the idea. Almost instantly he stopped limping and continued walking, ignoring the pain in his foot. "It isn't that bad. I can put up with it. Besides do you honestly think that you can beat him without me? You need me."

"Fine, then. It's not like I can stop you anyway," Sonic replied tersely, realizing that Tails was not going to take no for an answer. "I just don't like forcing you to follow me."

"You can't force the willing," Tails muttered quietly to himself as the two heroes slowly continued their journey to the next fight against the doctor. Thankfully, Sonic didn't bother telling his friend the real background behind the comment. "I mean, I would pretty much do any - "

"Let's just go before the idiot escapes." Sonic cut in, not wanting to know what the fox was thinking, worried about what he would find. There were some things that Sonic simply wasn't ready to sort out, and this was definitely one of them.

The two fell into silence as Tails took to the sky again, allowing them to travel a lot faster. It was practically no time at all before they reached the massive oil lake, and that was pretty much the only way to describe it.

The massive mechanical establishment sprawled over the massive lake beneath it, pumping millions of gallons of toxins into the water beneath with no regard for anything but itself. It really was the perfect metaphor of the Doctor, which was understandable when you realized that the place was constructed by the Doctor.

Though Sonic wasn't sure, he was indeed correct; the massive mechanical marvel was the evil enemy's base. The Doctor had chosen the remote spot for both its obscurity and its close proximity to the main city on the island. This was the head base of Eggman, the creator of the massive mechanical army that he was soon going to set upon the world. In Sonic's mind there was only one way that the massive complex could have been powered in such a remote location, and he was going to find that emerald before the Doctor found it.

It was going to be a dangerous attack, but neither of the heroes cared in the slightest. The only things that were registering in their minds were the dangerous platforms that stretched before them and the inevitable ambush from the Doctor.

Tails went first, ignoring Sonic's protests, and stepped onto one of the floating platforms and felt it dip down into the black ooze quite a bit from his weight. "These aren't going to hold my weight as well as yours. In fact, they may not hold yours alone all that well," Tails advised Sonic, stepping back from the unstable platform. He turned to Sonic with a smile on his face. "Good thing I can fly," he remarked simply before continuing. "How about you take on these while I stay flying above?"

Sonic cast an uneasy glance at the black oil, before looking back at the eager fox again. "Okay, fine. But whatever you do, don't fall in," he warned the fox. "I might not be able to come back for you."

"I'll be fine," Tails yelled back to Sonic as he jumped into the air and began the long flight over the dangerous area, leaving Sonic to do nothing more than roll his eyes at the fox's overeager manner.

Sonic carefully stepped onto one of the closer floating platforms and, glad that it could support his weight well enough, started running along it in an attempt to catch up to Tails who had taken Sonics careful steps as an opportunity to get a large lead.

He glanced up at Tails and noticed that the hyper kid was currently trying to pull off a complete loop, failing miserably, losing too much height and almost wiping out. Sonic was saved from trying to rescue Tails from the black muck due to the fox quick reflexes that somehow pulled him out of the dive, allowing him to hover above the surface instead of falling in. "What do you think you are doing?" Sonic called out to him, annoyed that Tails would be trying something so stupid such a dangerous place.

"I know what I'm doing," Tails called back, dismissing the hedgehog's words and shooting off ahead. Unfortunately, it was at this point that the Doctor's robotic influence finally reappeared in the form of a series of small robotic enemies. The first attack was about as instantaneous as you could get; one of the animals shot straight at Sonic with no warning whatsoever. Luckily, Sonic somehow noticed and threw himself at the oily ground of the platform as the attack shot overhead.

Tails, noticing that his hero was in danger, dived low and grabbed the heavy hedgehog, trying to pull him away from danger, Sonic had other ideas and instead pulled Tails to the ground as another attack shot overhead, this time in the form of a strange ball of energy from a nearby pink octopus.

Sonic didn't hesitate; he just threw himself at the small robot, smashing it away and into the oil ocean where it couldn't bother them. Unfortunately there were a lot more where that one had come from, and soon the two heroes were in a lot of trouble. Sonic pulled the fox to ground as a near-constant stream of those dangerous energy balls shot from their opponents.

However, Sonic had a plan. "Get in the air, and try to distract them," he commanded the fox, ignoring the guilt of getting his friend to play the part of the lure. "And be careful."

Tails nodded once and took to the air, his playful demeanor switching to his serious one as he realized how somber the situation had become. He twisted his twin tails and shot into the air, enjoying the brief feeling of calm wrap around him, before it was rudely taken away by the close shot from one of the stupid octopus robot things. The fox twisted in the air to avoid the dangerous projectile and spotted Sonic smashing the robot. To be honest, the fox didn't really mind being the bait; he could easily dodge the dangerous attacks in the air, and he trusted the Sonic would get rid of all the robots before they could take decent shots.

Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't enjoying this particular experience quite so much, He had to keep forcing himself to look away from his friend and keep his head on the task of keeping him safe. He spotted another small robot preparing an attack and slashed out at it, surprised by how easy it was to slice through it with his gloved hands.

Of course, that slice of amusement was soon lost in the massive helping of fear that he felt when he heard a loud scream come from Tails. He glanced up and saw that Tails had spotted something ahead. He quickly turned to see what the fox was so worried about.

It was rather obvious. The Doctor was there in yet another ship, but this one was far more dangerous that Sonic would have ever believed. The Doctor sat in his newly modified hovercraft, staring at them, a smug smile on his face. Sonic groaned when he saw the upgrades; thicker metal plating and what appeared to be a massive flamethrower were just some of the additions. "Oh, crap," Sonic muttered, biting his lip. The Doctor looked practically impenetrable in that craft, and Sonic had a feeling that his day was soon going to be getting a whole lot worse.

"What do you want, fatty?" Sonic taunted angrily, hoping that Tails would get out of the air and down to the ground where he was less of a target. "Haven't we already suffered enough seeing your ugly mug again?"

The Doctor growled angrily and the massive flamethrower suddenly jumped to life, a small flame waiting at the tip for the blast of gas that was soon to follow. "Well, if you feel that way, how about I make sure you never see me again? - permanently. Enjoy your death."

The massive metal flamethrower charged up and shot out at Sonic, the gas catching alight and burning at a temperature far beyond what the hedgehog could stand. Sonic leaped to the side, not caring about the splash of oil that got into his fur from his careless move. Luckily, the platform he was standing on was large enough for this movement. Unfortunately, said platform was also coated in oil. As soon as the flamethrower made contact with the volatile substance, it flared to life, the oil instantly catching alight. Sonic, realizing his danger, tried to leap into the air, but his jump was short. Tails somehow managed to swoop in and grab the hedgehog before his dip into the blackish brown ooze beneath.

However, such a maneuver also cost Tails whatever valuable energy he had left, and the fox landed heavily onto the platform. He wasn't used to flying so long and was starting to feel rather tired. Luckily Sonic was there to take up the slack and grabbed the fox tightly and aimed another jump onto a second platform to get away from the Doctor. Everything had just gone from serious to really-bloody serious.

The Doctor turned and his massive flamethrower aimed another attack at them. Sonic leaped into action, literally, and this time jumped straight at the craft, landing square on top and trying to pry open the metal casing. Tails, on the other hand, tiredly jumped into the air above, his movements slightly slowed by his fatigue . He knew that it wouldn't be long before the Doctor did something and he would have to save Sonic. The only real question was whether he could actually help.

"Get off, you mangy rat!" The Doctor yelled, outraged that the hedgehog would try such a dangerous action, one that the doctor hadn't prepared for. The Doctor pulled back on the craft's controls and the hovercraft responded, shooting upwards and just missing the flying fox above. "Why don't you get back to looking after your pet fox instead?"

Sonic jumped off the ship as it reached the top of its jump, curling up into a ball and using the provided air to aim his attack. The Doctor's ship landed back onto the surface and started sinking beneath, trying to move to a more strategically advantageous position. However, Sonic was too fast. He fell through the air and landed on the side of the craft, overbalancing it and slightly cracking its metallic shell.

Unfortunately, this seemed to affect the Doctor and make him more than a little angry. His ship suddenly shot deep underneath the black oil. Tails only just managed to grab Sonic before the hedgehog slipped under and hauled his heavy body back onto a platform. They both quickly climbed to their feet as the next attack began. A strange metal arm shot out of the oil, swiping through the air and along the ground, missing them by mere inches as they dived to the ground to avoid the deadly metal.

The attacker's metallic limb smashed through the iron platform mere inches from them, throwing sparks through the air. Thankfully none landed on the oil - there wasn't much chance of either of them outrunning an explosion. Suddenly the metallic limb shot back under the surface and another strange metallic gun shot out of the black ooze. This time it was the flamethrower.

This wasn't good for either hero. Tails jumped into the air, hoping that the Doctor wouldn't be able to detect his movement. His hopes were in vain as the gun's sights rose and pointed dead straight the fox. However, this gave Tails a good idea: if the Doctor's flamethrower could track them perfectly, but only one of them, then it wasn't going to work if they were in different places.

"Get away," Sonic commanded Tails as he spotted the gun beginning to charge. Sonic's plan was incredibly simple - he was just going to jump out of the way at the last minute, a risky plan that Tails wasn't agreeing with.

"I've got a better idea," Tails cut in, pushing Sonic out of the way, and taking to the air a few feet above Sonic. "How about we just confuse the sensor until the Doctor has to come up and them we smash him?"

"Fine," Sonic agreed, letting the fox take control of their battle strategy. It was something that he was doing more and more often - not that he had noticed yet. The hedgehog moved slightly to his left, checking his footing, and waited for the gun to try and focus.

Tails' plan was simple. If they moved away from each other while the gun tried to track both of them, then it would end up facing nothing and, hopefully, the Doctor would have to return to the surface to aim properly. Of course there were problems; if the gun just tracked one of them or if it was capable of a wide enough attack, then they were both in trouble.

Tails flew slowly to the side and watched as the gun struggled to center itself on the two moving figures, its small electronic servos stressed to aim properly with so much oil contaminating its joints. Unfortunately they didn't realize that their plan also had a time; the gun suddenly sparked to life and was preparing another attack. The machine roared as a large ball of gas shot out, instantly ignited by the small pilot flame. Sonic and Tails both dived out of the way, dodging the massive attack.

Tails landed heavily on a smaller platform in the oil ocean and could feel the extreme heat of the massive fireball. Clearly, the doctor was getting serious. Sonic, on the other hand, landed properly and didn't waste any time. With the gun still aiming for a new target, Sonic knew he had just enough time to put the gun out of action. He jumped through the air, landing on top of the gun.

He grabbed it violently and tore it from the metal fastenings that were intended to hold it. Obviously, the Doctor hadn't expected such a dangerously insane attack, what normal person would expect that the hedgehog would jump onto the flamethrower itself for the attack. Sonic glanced over to Tails and jumped back onto a floating platform as the metallic arm sunk back down into the oil. Tails didn't look happy.

"I thought I told you to stay back," Tails complained, growling angrily at Sonic before relenting. He walked closer to Sonic, his face a mixture of anger and concern. "We were going to coax him to the surface. Now he is just going to send another at-"

Sonic jumped at the fox, pinning him to the ground as the Doctor's inevitable second attack shot out through the metal platform and right through the air that had been Tails' head. He quickly pulled himself off his friend and helped him to his feet. "Thanks," Tails muttered in reply, feeling rather disappointed that he hadn't been ready for the attack.

"No problem," Sonic muttered as the both turned to face the Doctor who was currently rising evilly out of the black oil, streams of the substance trailing off the craft, giving it one of the creepiest looks yet. However, no matter how it looked, the Doctor wasn't ready for the next attack. Sonic and Tails, in a perfectly timed attack, both ran and jumped at the Doctor. Sonic's quills smashed and tore at the glass shield over the Doctor, while Tails kicked out in a surprisingly powerful kick that bent the metal body of the craft before grabbing Sonic and preparing for another attack.

The Doctor nervously eyed the large tears and bends in the metal body and decided to cut his losses. Clearly, these two weren't going to be defeated by something as basic as a flying hovercraft armed with a flamethrower and a deadly metallic claw. "You aren't going to get me that easily. Goodbye, you unintelligent rodents. Next time I will kill you." And with those parting words his craft shot up into the sky, spraying the two of them with oil as his craft shot through the air towards his next target.

Metropolis City.

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**A/n: Now that chapter was fun to write. I think I may finally actually be getting the hang of battle scenes. Now I just need to remember to add more descriptions. In a completely unrelated note, i've just realized that this site prefers to format itself in the same manner as Adobe Dreamweaver (using repeated paragraph tages) rather than the way Front page does it (with line breaks)....I don't really know why I'm sayign this...but yeah.  
**

**Btw, I have a new poll up in my account. Some votes would be nice.**


	13. Chapter 12 Metropolis Part1

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Chapter 13 - Metropolis (Part1)**

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**A/n: **Big thanks to pettite-dreamer who beta'd the chapter. I'm sorry it took so long, but I had heaps on these last few weeks. In actual fact I should probably be studyign instead of uploading this..but whatever. Thanks for the previous reviews and everything. Oh and the next half of this chapter wil be up soon when I finish fixing up my screw ups.

_TailsIsTheBest24: _If that wasn't how you remebered the boss, then this chapter will REALLY be not how you remeber this level. I don't know if it really even follows the game as strickly as previous chapters. Either way it should be good though.

_Pokelad_: ...and another brilliant review.

_pettite-dreamer: _Thanks for betaing the chapter. It was a big help. Really big. Oh and the hyper bit was fun to write. I could basically forget continuity and throw Tails anywhere.

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Tails sighed loudly as he landed back onto the oily platforms, watching the quickly escaping Doctor disappear into the distance. "So, he escaped again," Tails muttered, depressed that they had failed once again. "Am I ever going to do anything right?"

"That's the spirit," Sonic muttered sarcastically, pulling himself back up to his feet. "So what if he got away? We got to smash up his ship a bit, and he is on the run from us. We've managed to keep him out of this area at the very least."

"Yeah, because it would be so terrible if he made this area worse," Tails answered bitterly, looking around the oily wasteland that surrounded them. The fox sat back down on the edge of one of the potentially unstable platforms, ignoring the oil residue soaking into his tails. "Just tell me the truth. Are we doing anything at all? So far it seems that he is just screwing with us for the hell of it as he waits for whatever his big plan is. Are we ever going to stop him?"

Sonic didn't have an answer, so he fell back on a typical non-answer. He shrugged. "How the heck would I know?" he asked the fox. He turned to his furry friend and crossed his arms in an exaggerated manner. "All I really know is that whatever we are doing, we are, at the very least, holding back the idiot from terrorizing everyone."

"I guess," Tails replied in a tone that was decidedly negative. He slowly stood back up and let Sonic lead him back to the shore. They both knew there was more to this conversation, and that nothing had really been resolved, but they both also accepted that it would have to wait for another time.

"Where do you think he's gone now?" Tails asked as he stepped off the unsteady floating platform and back onto stable ground, the tone of his voice betraying how irritated the fox felt about the whole situation.

"I dunno," Sonic answered in his typical version of a complete non-answer. He looked into the distance and saw the rather obvious shape of a city. Sonic glanced over at his young partner and didn't like what he saw. Tails was breathing rather heavily and he looked like he seriously needed to get some rest soon or he'd collapse. Sighing inward, Sonic made a choice. "But I do have a reasonably good idea of where he's probably going to go next."

"Really, where?' Tails asked, his tired state hidden by a new wave of excitement at the prospect of getting to the Doctor before he could cause any more harm.

"Well he's probably heading over to that city," Sonic lied, his mind jumping to the logical conclusion that the evil idiot would never be stupid enough to take on an entire city. "What do you think, Tails?"

Tails contemplated asking the hedgehog exactly what the difference was between where the doctor had gone and where the doctor was heading, but decided against it. Sonic wasn't great when it came to logic and the fox honestly didn't want to put up with Sonic's insanity for the next few hours. So he instead just went with Sonic's choice. "Right. Well, I guess we will just head that way then."

"Great, see ya there. I've got something important to sort out," Sonic told Tails before suddenly spinning around and shooting off in the completely wrong direction, away from the city. His trail soon disappearing, leaving Tails understandably confused.

"Where the heck is he heading?" Tails asked himself as he saw the last trails of dust disappear in the distance. "He may not be a brainiac, but surely he knows that the city is in the other direction. Right?" Either way, it didn't really matter to Tails. Sonic had said he'd meet him at the city, so that was where Tails would have to go. "You could've at least told me where you are going," Tails muttered to himself and turned back towards the city, beginning the short journey to another adventure.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Sonic's feet might've been eagerly pounding along the ground, propelling his body immeasurably faster every second, but Sonic himself was far from eager to embark on such a trip. Leaving Tails behind hadn't exactly been the best idea Sonic had ever had, but he knew that this was the best option. He couldn't keep on dragging Tails into these dangerous fights.

Sonic sighed and kept running harder as he continued heading back to his old biplane that they had left on the emerald coast. "Come on, Sonic." Sonic muttered to himself angrily. "Get a hold of yourself. You need to keep him away from this fight, and if that means lying your ass off so he goes to the city while you run off to the other side of the island in an attempt to lure the evil idiot away from said city, then so be it."

With this new resolve in mind, Sonic sped up his run, allowing himself to feel in complete control of his choice and path. Little did he realize that his plan was already off to a bad start.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Back with Tails, the young fox had finally reached the mechanical city as nighttime fell, swamping the city in darkness. One look and Tails could only think of two words to accurately sum up the place he was; needlessly complex. Everything seemed to have some kind of mechanical marvel running behind it, every part of the intricate working sitting in plain view. Clearly this city was obsessive with technology.

Tails threw a glance up the street and saw two Mobian making their way in his direction, a small cat and a larger wolf. Acting more through instinct than anything else, he ducked low and hid behind one of the city's numerous mechanical machines, keeping down to avoid been seen.

The two Mobians walked nearby and continued their conversation, expressions of irritation and anger appearing dominantly on their faces. Clearly something serious was going on. Unfortunately, Tails was too far away to hear anything of value, so he decided to move closer and find out what was going on. He carefully moved closer, sticking to the shadows and keeping a careful eye on the potentially dangerous Mobians. He moved as close as he could manage without being seen and strained to hear the conversation.

"I just don't know why he can't just go away." The wolf, growled angrily, looking over his shoulder with just a flicker of nervousness.

"He wants something, obviously." The smaller cat replied, also looking around nervously as if afraid of eavesdroppers, "But it doesn't really matter. We just need to find whatever he wants and give it to him so he can go away and get his robots out of here."

"Finally," Tails thought to himself "Now we are getting somewhere." With his interest in the close conversation growing, Tails cautiously moved closer, into the artificial light cast by a nearby street light, slowly to avoid attracting attention. He didn't like risking exposing himself to the potentially dangerous Mobians, but he knew that whatever the two were discussing was undoubtedly important. Luckily he was only in sight for a few seconds before he was in the relative safety of another dark shadow.

"I somehow doubt he will actually keep his side of the bargain," the wolf countered, shooting a furious look into the distance, clearly pissed at the mere thought of the Doctor lying to them. "You know as well as I do that he can't be trusted. You saw what he did after those useless negotiations he organized. Remember what happened to those who met his first round of negotiations, every Mobian who went to 'aid' him was captured and taken to who knows where."

Eager to hear more, Tails stealthily moved closer, not noticing where he was stepping. His foot slipped as he stepped on the gutter and he fell to the ground awkwardly. While the short fall didn't really hurt him, the sound of his hands catching his fall did make enough sound for his two guests to hear.

"What was that?" the younger cat asked, turning around and looking straight into the darkness, unable to see the hiding fox that was only a few feet away in the shadows. Unfortunately for our young hero, the two Mobians weren't going to just forget that they heard anything.

"We know that you are hiding there. Show your face," The older Mobian wolf commanded angrily, his fur bristling in both anger and fear of the unknown intruder to their supposedly private conversation. With no answer returning the wolf bared his teeth. "Get out here now before I go in there and force you out."

Tails quickly weighted his options. On one hand, the wolf wasn't really all that much of a threat anymore. Tails had taken on worse, such as the robotic enemies he had been forced into battles against. On the other hand, Tails could tell that there really wasn't any point hiding.

In the end, he decided to simply just go what along with what they were doing. He had nothing more to gain by hiding with his source of information aware of his location. He sighed quietly to himself and stepped out into the light, allowing the two to see him. "I wanted to know what he did here," Tails told them in the deepest voice he could, hoping they would take the tone as a rather obvious hint. "Now I am going to leave and you two are going to forget you saw anything."

Tails turned away from them, biting his lip nervously in the hope that the two would just hurry up and go away. That way he could continue on his personally chosen task of espionage against the Doctor. Unfortunately, Tails wasn't going to have such a quick getaway.

"Wait," The younger suddenly cut in, moving closer to Tails, although they still kept their distance. "We need help, and you sound like you could give it to us."

Tails turned at the blatantly needy voice and sighed loudly. This was going to be a long night. "What do you need?" He asked, allowing his tone of voice to return to normal. He moved into the light further, hoping that his small stature would stop them bothering him. "If you really need some help, I can. But what do you honestly think I could do for you that you can't do yourself?"

However the response he got wasn't quite what he was expecting. Instead of disappointment or irritation on the faces of the two Mobians, there were looks of surprise. "It is you." The older one muttered, both Mobians' mouths hanging open in obvious surprise. "We need help, and I know you really can help us. Everyone knows how much you can do with Sonic."

"Do they actually know who I am?" Tails asked himself, confused at the new turn of events. "How do you know me?" He asked with curiosity, a look of interest crossing his features before it was replaced with a faked look of indifference. "Who told you what Sonic and I can do?"

"You're Sonic's sidekick," the cat answered as if it was obvious. "Everyone knows who you are, kind of. I mean, everyone knows that you joined up with Sonic on this island and started taking on the infamous Doctor Robotnik."

"Great," Tails muttered dryly, rolling his eyes. "So everybody knows. That's just what I didn't want. Look, could you at least tell me what the evil idiot has demanded recently?"

"Apart from Sonic, not much," The older one admitted, looking rather embarrassed to be talking to someone who was so close to their savior. "He's asked for a few mechanical parts, a few unusual demands for jewelry and I think he also demanded that we give him a massive emerald. He was kinda angry as hell when we told him that we didn't have it. But then he didn't seem to really care a few minutes later."

Tails sighed before turning away from the two and looking off into the distance, wondering what the Doctor was planning. There was obviously a lot more to his plan that a few mediocre demands. The Doctor definitely had something brewing. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Well there were some stories about what he was doing to his prisoners and forcing them to build robots for his army." The younger one muttered, not noticing the light growl Tails let out at the mere though of the Doctor's actions.

The fox closed his eyes momentairily, to regain some composure, before turning back to the two Mobians who were still looking at him like he'd grown a third tail. "Excellent. This is just what we don't need." He told them, clearly irritated. "Sorry. The Doctor was the one that introduced me to the wonderful world of betrayal and I still haven't returned the favour."

He trailed off, staring into the darkness, trying to get his thoughts in order before turning back to his two guests and continuing the conversation. "Alright. Just tell me where he is at the moment. I'll deal with him and then Sonic can come along and sort everythign else out whatever is going on. Okay? Good." He didn't wait for confirmation before continuing quickly. "Good. Now tell me where he is."

"He's in his base," the wolf replied, pointing into the distance. "But he's got a lot of security and I doubt that you will be able to make -"

Tails merely ignored the two Mobians, instead choosing to quickly twist his tails and shoot into the air. His determined nature was about to be put through a challenge he belioved he was prepared for.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't quite so prepared for the challenge before him. He stared at his biplane as it sat miserably on the beach. It was in surprisngly good condition for what it had been through, but Sonic had no idea how to get it working. He studied the rear tail flap, trying to work out how the mechanical device functioned before giving up and pulling out an emerald. Unfortunately for the hedgehog, he needed to repair the ship. He knew that there was very little chance that the Doctor would take the bait and follow Sonic unless he got off the island. Sonic knew that if he took off, the Doctor would probably follow to ensure that the evil idiot's 'amazing' plans would also defeat his blue hedgehog rival.

Of course, with the way things were going, Sonic could tell that his own plan was already in serious trouble. The Doctor hadn't sent a single robot his way and if Sonic couldn't get the plane working soon and attack the Doctor's attention, then all hell would break loose when the Doctor did whatever he was trying to do.

"Look," he began, talking with the emerald and caring little about what others would think of him. Though that was mainly due to the lack of people around, rather than any lack of pride. Either way, Sonic was going to try anything to get results. "I need this plane to work, and you are going to help me. I've seen you help me and Tails before, and you are going to do it again. Got it? You know as well as I do that if I can't get this plane working then I can't lure the Doctor off this island, and if I can't lure him off the island, then people are going to die. And if people die, I'm going to smash you into a million tiny shards."

The emerald stayed dull in his palm, unaffected by his words. Sonic growled and threw it at the ground, not caring as the valuable gem hit the ground and buried itself partly under the surface. *What the hell am I going to do now?* Sonic though angrily to himself. He glanced down at the emerald sitting innocently in the sand.

"Look, if you keep acting like a little insolent brat, I am just going to force you to fix this plane, got it?" The emerald still didn't listen, remaining silent in the face of Sonic's temper tantrum. Sonic was getting rather pissed off by this point. He reached down and grabbed the emerald roughly, not bothering to handle it gently like he normally preferred to, and brought it towards the damaged plane. "Here's the deal. Work or I kill myself," Sonic demanded, lying completely.

Amazingly, the emerald seemed to actually listen and a beam of light shot out of the emerald and fixed itself onto the plane's rear tail flap. A strange glow shot out from the point of impact and ran down the split cable, throwing it into strange spasms. It suddenly hit the other half of the broken cable and a slight flash of light appeared as the plane was repaired. Another flash of light hit the engine and it sparked into life, sounding almost as good as when Tails repaired it.

"Much better. Thanks," Sonic told the small glowing rock cheerfully as he jumped into the plane and revved the engine. The old biplane began taxing over the uneven terrain, the sand proving to be a poor surface. He felt the plane beginning to gain lift and pulled back gently on the controls, hoping that the emerald had done a reasonable job at getting the plane repaired.

Luckily, everything seemed to be working, and Sonic began to turn out and headed towards the water. However it was at this point that Sonic's plan fell to pieces. The plane suddenly banked hard to the left and the controls weren't responding to any of Sonic's desperate movements. He felt the plane start to accelerate and shoot off in a completely different direction, back to where he had left Tails.

"Great, just what I need," Sonic muttered to himself dryly. "An emerald that wants to control my life." Sighing loudly, Sonic gave up and instead pulled himself out of the pilot's seat to sleep on the wings of the plane. If the emerald wanted to take control of his life, then Sonic was going to take a nap and let the emerald handle everything.

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**A/n: Next chapter will be up soon...and this was fun to write...and I should really be sudying.**


	14. Chapter 13 Metropolis Part2

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Chapter 13 - Metropolis (Part2)**

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**A/n: **Was this update quick enough? (7 minutes...which is pretty good considering my net has been capped to dial up speed.)

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Tails was having a blast breaking into the Doctor's heavily fortified fortress. Unfortunately that was also a literal description. The fox threw himself to the ground as a nearby robot shot a surprise attack at him, the deadly projectiles missing him by mere inches. The Doctor was growing smarter and had begun hiding some of his robots in the walls. The deadly devices were set to shot out lethal arrows whenever anyone got too close to them. So far, Tails had been lucky, but he knew his luck was quickly running low. The attacks were becoming nearer and nearer, and he knew that he simply couldn't handle much more.

Tails picked himself up off the ground, casting a suspicious eye at the nearby metal walls, wondering if the Doctor had more of the deadly mines waiting for him. Unfortunately, there was no real was of finding out, so he had no choice but to risk it. He cautiously stepped towards one of the outer walls of the base and was relieved when no more deadly projectiles came his way.

He cast a quick glance at the massive metal and concrete building in which the Doctor was hiding. This wasn't going to be easy. He took a deep breath to prepare for exhausting task ahead of him. He cast a quick glance behind himself to ensure no one was looking his way, and then jumped into the air, twisting his tails to gain enough life to propel himself up onto the roof.

He landed awkwardly on the uneven curved metal surface and didn't pause for a second before continuing on his mission. The young fox carefully slowed his movements as he neared a small roof vent and looked down it, happy to see no noticeable danger waiting for him.

Unfortunately, he was wrong. Tails carefully moved over the air duct and was about to jump in when he spotted a small flash of light. He barely had time to jump aside before a piece of metal shot straight past him, the razor sharp edge just missing him as it shot along it's dangerous trajectory. Tails went to continue when he heard the flying steel projectile come in for another attack. He quickly scrambled out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough.

He felt a flash of pain as the deadly metal sliced deeply into his arm, becoming wedged down into the bone. The fox bit his lip hard as the intensity of the pain hit him; however he persevered and forced himself to get back to his feet and continue what he came here to do. Ignoring the blood seeping from his arm, Tails carefully lowered himself into the intensively convoluted system of interconnected metallic tunnels and began crawling around, ignoring the darkness that was soon pressing around him.

He carefully moved deeper into the consuming darkness, ignoring the incredibly painful wound, and felt around, searching for the catch that would mark an entrance into the Doctor's base. He soon found it and snapped the small strip of metal holding him back. He kicked open the vent and couldn't help smiling as it fell down and landed right on top of a small red robot, obviously one of the Doctor's smaller security robots.

He jumped down straight after, landing heavily on the metallic air conditioning grill, flattening the weak robot beneath even more. Tails gave the massive room a quick glance and wasn't all the surprised to see that he was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a massive mechanical factory filled from floor to ceiling with plenty of high-tech gadgetry. It would've looked impressive, if it wasn't for the dirty, oily residue that somehow managed to cover everything from the gears to the ground.

Feeling rather sorry for the poorly maintained technology, Tails carefully stepped off the wreckage and began heading towards the center of the massive factory complex. Up ahead he couldn't help sighing aloud when he saw the large solid steel door that barred his way. He carefully inspected the massive structure and chuckled as he found the physical override.

"Someone's getting sloppy," Tails muttered to himself, smiling at his good fortune. The massive mechanical door, as fortified as it was, had been equipped with a safety release mechanism that would force open the door when power was cut to it. Tails reached into the complicated cabling system that ran alongside the door and extracted one of the larger wire cords that lay inside and followed it to the control panel, pulling it out of its attached socket, disconnecting the door from the main power supply.

Unfortunately, it was right at this point that everything went to hell. As the door slid open, powered by the emergency batteries, a loud alarm went off, alerting every robotic enemy in the building to the fox intruder. "Shit," Tails swore in response, jumping to his feet and making a run for the massive mechanical door before the multitude of robots showed up to tear him limb from limb.

He spun his tails behind himself, using the extra force to throw him through the door as the numerous robotic rivals emerged from the dark to search for him. However, he wasn't in the clear yet. He heard the unmistakable sounds of mechanics behind him and spun around just in time to see the massive solid steel door slam shut behind him with a resounding crash that hurt his ears.

"This isn't good," Tails muttered as the factory lights around him slowly started to dim and switch off, leaving him in pitch blackness with no light source to be found apart from the light glow of the two emeralds sitting curled up in his tails. Noticing the two tone colors, Tails spun around and was horrified to see that only two of the four emeralds that he was supposed to be look after were there. Obviously, he had dropped them as he was making his escape, and the Doctor was almost certain to have retrieved them.

Growling in anger, Tails turned away from the shut door and started carefully exploring the room with the dull glimmer of light from the two remaining emeralds. The place was a mess of metal cables and computer consoles lying haphazardly everywhere in incredibly poor shape. Tails carefully stepped over a small pile of electrical cables and tried to peer ahead into the darkness that limited his view to a few feet.

As he did so he heard the mysterious sound of metal scraping past metal. Tails turned towards the light and tried to see what was coming. Suddenly, a massive red claw shot out of the dark and straight at the unprepared fox. Luckily, Tails managed to throw himself out of the way and miss the deadly attack; however, such a move also jarred his shoulder painfully and threw even more pain through his body.

Tails tried to ignore the furious stinging sensation from his shoulder and pulled himself to his feet, searching for another way to find the hiding attacker. He heard the strange sound again and dropped to the floor preparing for another attack. There was almost no break before the robotic claw shot overhead, stopping just a foot away before retracting at a significantly slower rate.

Tails didn't bother even considering his next action. He just did it. He jumped at the claw and held on tight as it pulled itself back. Tails got ready, spotting the robotic enemy in the dark as a nearby shadow and waited until it was in range. As soon as the emeralds lit it up enough, Tails jumped, crashing into it and knocking it over. The robotic creation was unable to handle being in such a different position and its sensors shut off, aided by Tails as the fox grabbed a handful of wires and ripped them out of the machine.

However, that small victory was overshadowed by the sudden appearance of a loud rumbling that filled the blackness surrounding him, echoing off unseen walls. Tails quickly reached into his tails and pulled out one of the emeralds, allowing it to light up the room marginally better. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough to see anything at all.

The sound just kept getting louder and Tails was starting to panic. Even though he had no idea what was coming, he carefully adjusted his stance and prepared to spin his tails. If the Doctor was coming to get him, he was going to be as ready as possible. However, his actions were soon proven to be pointless.

The massive halogen lights above suddenly snapped on, filling the room with an excessively bright light, forcing Tails to squint to see anything. He quickly studied the room as his eyes adjusted to the new light. He sighed as he realized he was standing in a massive room that had no exit, the ground strewn with numerous robots that the Doctor had dumped with little regard for their inherent worth.

However, Tails knew that the worst was about to come. There was no way the Doctor would just leave him here to get bored; that wasn't his style. Tails guessed he didn't have long before the evil idiot arrived with some new machine capable of murder, and Tails wasn't so sure that he would be able to survive such a battle on his own. Of course, there was no chance he would ever give up and he was determined as hell to stop the Doctor before he could screw up Mobius anymore.

"I'm waiting, your master of idiocy" Tails called out, smirking. If he wasn't going to survive, he may as well have some fun beforehand. "Well, where are you? Can't you fit your fat ass through the door?" Normally, Tails would've never bothered insulting the Doctor, but he figured that if he was going to face the Doctor alone, he may as well follow Sonic's example. "Well, where are you? Sonic is getting sick of hiding in the shadows waiting for a surprise attack," Tails lied.

The Doctor, naturally, reacted in the only way he knew, pure violence. A massive explosion rocked the room as the Doctor blasted straight through one of the thick steel walls, pelting molten metal through the air. Tails, luckily, was far enough for most of the debris to miss him, but the sight of the Doctor's new ship didn't really make him feel better.

The Doctor was sitting in his typical ship, hovering quite a far distance from the ground. Normally this wouldn't have mattered with Tails' flying enabled tails; unfortunately, the Doctor had a group of strange grey and black orbs, each roughly the size of Tails, orbiting around the ship at quite a fast speed to form some strange kind of protection.

However, as intimidating as the mechanical monstrosity was, it was nothing compared to the excessively irate look on the Doctor's face as he stared at Tails, his face clearly showing how much he was going to enjoy tearing the fox apart down to an atomic level. "When I get my hands on you, you will wish I will only make your death come quickly," the Doctor threatened, his voice taking on one of the most savage tones Tails had ever heard. "And I won't. Prepare to experience a life of misery and pain, freak."

"Shut up and die," Tails yelled back, anger from the incredibly personal insult was threatening to overwhelm him. However, the fox managed to get control of his emotions and forced it down, forcing himself to feel calm in preparation for the deadly attacks that were soon going to follow. "If you don't leave right now, I will hunt you down and kill you."

If the Doctor was surprised by the fox's harsh comment, he didn't show it. "I doubt it, runt. There is no way you will ever be able to defeat me this time." He threw back in response, preparing to begin the first attack. The fox before him was really starting to get on the Doctor's nerves and he was going to make sure that the animal would soon be nothing more than a few streaks of blood.

Tails smirked as he saw the Doctor slowly lose all self-control. He knew that he had probably made his job a whole lot harder than it needed to be, but at least this way the Doctor would go for a full on attack rather than try and tire the cute little fox. "Bring it on, Doctor," he taunted as the Doctor revved the engine of his flying hovercraft. "I don't have all day to get rid of you."

Finally, the Doctor stopped showing off and moved in for action, throwing his craft into top speed and shooting straight through the air at the unprotected fox. Tails, realizing that everything had become a lot more dangerous, jumped out of the way of the attach with all of his strength, ignoring the now screaming pain of his injured shoulder. He pulled himself back to his feet and turned to face the Doctor, knowing that if he screwed up again it would cost more than a bit of pain.

"There has to be a way to defeat you," Tails muttered to himself, eying the deadly balls that span around the Doctor, protecting him from attack. He glanced away from his attacker to see what he could use to even the odds. Unfortunately, his lapse in concentration was enough for the Doctor to attempt another attack. Tails heard the attack approaching and jumped upwards into the air, spinning his tails furiously to get into the air high enough to avoid the attack.

He just managed to gain enough air for the Doctor to miss. He spun around and slowed his tails, leaning back into the fall. He spotted a break in the deadly grey orbs circling the Doctor, and took the opportunity, allowing himself to fall through the gap and onto the top of the hovercraft. He landed heavily on the smooth metallic surface, easily attracting the attention of the furious Doctor. Tails felt the craft suddenly pitch violently upwards as the Doctor tried to throw him off.

Tails sunk his claws into the metal as best he could, but it didn't help. He felt the craft suddenly drop from beneath him as he was thrown away from it, somehow missing the deadly orbiting protection as he fell. Unfortunately, the ground came up quickly and Tails hit the ground hard, pain spiking through his body. He struggled to pull himself to his feet, his body protesting every step of the way, but he succeeded, only to find the Doctor ready for another attack.

Tails tried to dodge the attack, but he was simply too slow. He felt one of the closer metallic orbiting balls crash into him and throw him across the room. He landed painfully against one of the solid metal walls and could feel a bone in his arm crack from the impact. Unfortunately, it wasn't over yet. Tails tiredly looked up to see the Doctor coming in for the kill, sending two of the metallic orbs to finish him off.

Tails tried to stand and defend himself, but he could feel every last vestige of energy been drawn straight out of him as his body refused to follow his commands. In the end, it was just too much. Tails saw the attack coming and felt himself go faint, his body shutting down from exhaustion and pain, collapsing heavily onto the floor. He closed his eyes and waiting for the inevitable.

An inevitable that never came. An excruciatingly loud crash screamed through the building and Tails felt something strange shoot overhead, missing him by mere inches. He tiredly forced himself to look up and was astonished to see Sonic, the two attacking orbs reduced to mere scraps of metal. Sonic turned and winced slightly.

"Sorry I was late, Tails," Sonic apologized nervously, seemingly not noticing the Doctor preparing for another attack right behind the distracted hedgehog. "I kind of got hung up on the emerald coast," he lied, not wanting to admit that his plan to attract the Doctor away had failed. "But thanks for keeping an eye on the Doctor for me."

As Sonic finished and turned back around, the evil idiot shot off his attack, going all or nothing at the two heroes. Sonic, luckily, knew better than to attack while the Doctor was ready and instead grabbed Tails roughly by the arm and ran them both out of danger. He glanced down at the weak fox in his arms and rather worried to see the complete look of defeat in his young friend's eyes.

"I'll take care of him, Tails," he muttered, slowly letting the fox rest on the floor, the fox overcome by exhaustion. Sonic turned to the Doctor, feeling anger start to course through his veins. He could feel himself growling in anger. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled at the Doctor, caring little for how feral he seemed. "He's just a kid."

To be fair, the Doctor did look a little bit worried by the hedgehog's suddenly violent tone, but he quickly hid the expression and powered up the next phase of his attack. "I did what I had to," the Doctor replied, putting on his best evil smile. "He got in my way. I took care of the problem. It isn't my fault you care for your mutant-pet so much."

Sonic just reacted and attacked the doctor violently, his quills splaying out wide as he jumped insanely at the Doctor, somehow managing to use his super speed to miss the deadly orbs. He jumped onto the side of the craft and began tearing into the ship by spinning his quills over the smooth surface. He could feel the steel alloy body of the craft tear into shreds as he hit the side, before the Doctor somehow managed to twist the ship around, throwing Sonic away.

Somehow, the hedgehog managed to land on his feet and turned straight back towards the flying craft. Unfortunately, the Doctor took this brief opportunity to rise up into the air, out of Sonic's range of attack. "Get down here," Sonic yelled, feeling his anger beginning to get the better of him. Unfortunately, the Doctor didn't take any notice of Sonic's demand and instead continued to wait out of range for the best time for an attack.

By this time, Tails had somehow managed to get back to his feet and rejoin the battle. The young fox felt weak but he knew he had to help, even though his body was practically screaming for him to give up by this point. He somehow managed to get over to Sonic and held up his tails wordlessly, hoping that the Doctor wouldn't work out their admittedly simple plan. Sonic, luckily, took the hint and nodded in response.

The Doctor glanced down at the two heroes and wasn't all that surprised to see that they were taking another attempt, but he didn't worry. He knew that there was no chance that the small fox would be able to fly more than a few feet, much less carry the stupid rodent with him. Naturally, the evil idiot was wrong. A fact he realized when he glanced up for the second time to see himself face to face with an extremely pissed Sonic.

Of course, this wasn't going to be the end of their battle. The Doctor expertly twisted the controls of his craft, somehow managing to throw Sonic off and back into the arms of the hedgehog's worried friend, before he gunned the engine and made his escape.

Tails wearily landed back on the ground, practically collapsing into Sonic's arms as the last remaining sound of the Doctor, destroying the gearbox of his hovercraft in a bid to escape, disappeared. "And so he has gotten away again," Tails muttered weakly, unable to do anything more than lie in Sonic's arms. Using the last remnants of strength, Tails turned his head to look up at Sonic. "I'm sorry I screwed this up for y-"

Sonic covered the young fox's mouth with his hand and sighed. "It's not your fault, little one," he whispered, pulling the fox into his arms and a gentle embrace that was more for aid than comfort. "In fact, thanks for looking after the Doctor for me, I kind of had something important to sort out first." Sonic felt a little bit bad about lying to the weak fox in his arms, but he knew that the truth, in this case, should be worked out later. "You did a great job and it wasn't like I was able to really do all that much either."

"Thanks, Sonic," Tails whispered, feeling himself being to lose the battle to stay awake. "Goodnight."

Sonic smiled as Tails closed his eyes and started to snore incredibly cutely in his arms. He gently moved the fox into a marginally better position and began the walk back into town. All he needed to work out now was where he could score some free accommodation. "You get some sleep, little one," Sonic whispered to the sleeping fox. "Our fight isn't over. The Doctor is planning something and we both know that we have to stop whatever it is."

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**A/n: There you all go. How was that?**


	15. Chapter 14 Flying Fortress Part1

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Chapter 14 - The Flying Fortress (Part 1)**

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**A/n:** As so the next chapter begins, or whatever. I'm really sorry about the wait (Was it really 3-4 weeks between updates?...sorry), but I have had a lot to do lately (well not really, but....umm, I don't really have an excuse). And I'm sorry about the relative short length; I kinda lost this chapter and rewrote it from memory. Backups may be great, but they don't work when you forget to save the damn file. Anyway, I have a game to play so I can catch up to the storyline, I'm still stuck on the final boss of the flying fortress.

Oh and sorry TailsIsTheBest24, but I don't know if I will continue doing game adaptations after this. I am running out of ways to keep it interesting with such basic games....especially since the new plot ideas I've been having don't really connect to the story lines of the games very well....but perhaps I will (Clearly, my opinion changes more often than the continuity of the Sonic Series).

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Tails yawned quietly and opened his eyes to find himself curled up next to Sonic, his body wrapped up tightly in the hedgehog's arms, again. He gave the surrounding area a quick glance and was surprised to see that they were currently resting in the shoddily repaired biplane that had started their adventure.

He slowly looked around as was surprised to see that the plane was sitting in a small alley way between two old buildings, unseen from the roads and pedestrians of the city. Tails glanced down at the tight embrace and quickly began work on pulling the restricting arms from around his small body. "You have really got to stop this." tails muttered quietly, chuckling at the happy expression on the hedgehog's face. Clearly Sonic liked using Tails as a big plush toy.

Tails gently pulled himself out of the tight embrace and pulled himself to his feet, smiling at the new bandages Sonic had wrapped around him during the night. Tails got to work removing the restricting material, knowing that none of his injuries were really all that serious, with the healing capabilities of the emeralds. Tails pulled open one side of the cloth and was surprised to see no wound at all. It was clearly the work of the emeralds, which had become the supernatural protectors of the two Mobians.

He tenderly pulled off the slightly dirty cloths and wrapped them back up; glancing at Sonic every few seconds to ensure the hedgehog didn't wake and force him to put all of the bandages back on again. Luckily, Sonic remained asleep and Tails was able to complete the relatively simple task.

The young fox sighed as he went to look at the rush job that had been done to the plane, amazed that Sonic had somehow managed to achieved flight. As far as Tails could tell the plane should never had made it this far with the amount of damage it had received. As he investigated further he discovered more and more damage that had been done, and in the end he knew that he had a lot of work before him to get the plane back into reasonable condition. The young fox quickly began work, wanting to at least make the engine work before Sonic woke up.

Hours passed and Tails continued to work as Sonic still slept, his young ears tuned constantly on the near-silent snores of the hedgehog. He was just working on the main engine, trying to tune it's speed up to a better rate, when there was an almighty explosion sound out from the over side of the city. Tails jumped to his feet and took to the air, rising up rapidly to see what had happened.

The site that met his eyes was far from reassuring. Before him a massive flying fortress was rising into the air. It was easily hundreds of times larger than the small biplane and Tails could only stare in wonder as the massive creation's multitude of engine's worked overtime to pull the massive weight into the air. It was shaped in a strange wedge shape with hundreds of small fan blades spinning furiously to pull the millions of tones of metal into the sky.

Tails quickly shot back down to Sonic's side and shook the sleeping hedgehog. "Get up, lazy." He told Sonic angrily, feeling a wave of panic starting to overwhelm him. How on Mobius were they going to take on something so massive when they could barely manage to damage the small flying hovercraft. "Get up now."

Tails, frustrated and Sonic's repeated ignorance, head-butted the hedgehog in the ribs, waking him instantly. "Ow, what was that for." Sonic complained, rubbing the now tender area between two of his ribs. "I was getting up."

"We don't have time for this, Sonic." Tails cut in, getting quickly irritated with the hedgehog's stubbornness. He grabbed the hedgehog and took to the air, dragging the newly woken hedgehog into the air to see what had worried Tails so much. Sonic saw the massive ship and instantly stopped complaining. "Do you get it now?"

"Yeah." Sonic muttered, amazed at how technologically advanced the Doctor had become in such a short period of time.

Tails slowly lowered them back down to the ground and sighed loudly as he looked at the status of the biplane before them. "There is no way this will fly that far with its engine as screwed as it is." Tails muttered depressed, throwing a glance upward as the flying fortress flew high enough to be visible between the massive buildings.

Sonic glanced back at the factory where they had faced off against the Doctor the previous night and smiled. "I'll be right back." He shot off in a flash of blue while Tails sighed and waiting for the hedgehog to return, something that took him less than a minute to do. He shot back with what appeared to be a large rocket. "Will this work?"

Tails cautiously took the large metal tube from Sonic, eying the dimensions. He shrugged. "In theory, I guess it might work." He responded unsure, frowning a bit. He knew that while the rocket may be able to get the up there, it wouldn't be easy to control and Tails wasn't sure he would be able to even get close to the fortress, much less land on it. Not to mention that fact that the force of the rocket could tear the plane apart.

"Then I guess we just need to try it out then." Sonic replied eagerly. Tails took the hint and got to work attaching the dangerous rocket to the underside of the biplane, his only hope was that it wasn't going to explode the second they hit the ignition. The end result was quick and dirty, and Tails was rather worried about the stability of the airplane, but they both knew that they simply didn't have time to check.

Sonic jumped eagerly on the wing as Tails pulled himself into the aging biplane's pilot's seat, grinning as the plane's smaller engine started up, albeit roughly. Tails let out the throttle slowly and soon the plane began to slowly move, its wheels slowly rolling over the slightly uneven terrain of the city's park.

As the plane completed the small turn, Tails gunned the engine. The plane whined in response but followed its given command and quick picked up speed. They both could hear the engine complain as it struggled to push the plane up to take off speed. Luckily, it somehow managed the impossible and shot into the air as soon as Tails pulled back on the controls.

Tails aimed the plane upward and jammed the throttle on full, knowing that they had to get to a reasonable height before firing the jerry-rigged rocket. Tails sighed as he felt the wind shoot past his fur; however his moment of bliss was quickly ruined by the appearance of the Doctor's massive fortress hanging high overhead, and its engine still spinning furiously to stay in the sky against the will of gravity.

Tails could already feel the weak plane loosing speed as it reached the full potential of it's engines, "Hold on, sonic." tails called out before flicking a small switch next to the main controls. Almost instantly a massive jet of flames shot out of the small rocket strapped to the bottom of the craft as both Sonic and Tails found themselves thrown backwards by the sheer acceleration. Tails could barely breathe in such a savage environment but soon, thankfully, he felt the plane slow it's acceleration for him to get a decent breathe.

Sonic, following his usual death wish, yawned loudly and slowly pulled himself onto the top wing of the craft, moving over to the middle of the plane, in an attempt to see what was ahead. The acceleration didn't even phase the blue speed freak, who was use to much greater rates of speed change. "We've got some of the idiot's goons up ahead." Sonic called out to Tails as he got ready for the new series of attacks.

"I see them." Tails called back, grinning at the prospect of a new challenge. His grip tightened slightly at the controls as Sonic prepared for the first attack. "What should we do?" Tails asked, noticing Sonic's preparations. "Dodge or attack."

"Since when have we even dodged an enemy?" Sonic asked, with obviously phony offence. He checked his footing and looked back at the quickly approaching enemies. "I'm gonna attack, you just make sure that you can catch me."

"Wait, what?" Tails called out, but it was too late. Sonic leaped forwards, off the plane and onto a close attacker, landing squarely on the robotic plane. Tails revved the engine roughly and forced it to speed up to keep up with the suicidal hedgehog, hoping that Sonic would at least make sure that Tails was there before he jumped.

Luckily Sonic seemed to have the presence of mind to glance back at Tails before he ripped out the electronics controlling the robot's flight path. Unfortunately Sonic didn't bother actually aiming as he jumped off the craft and landed off center, forcing Tails to compensate quickly to avoid the added weight throwing the small plane into a tailspin. Tails managed the first time, but Sonic just didn't let up, waiting only a few seconds before jumping off again, this time landing on what appeared to be a flying turtle that had been flying beneath them. It was lucky that Sonic attacked when he did because the robot had been preparing to fire a small rocket at them, and the plane wouldn't have been able to survive such an attack.

Tails pulled back on the controls, forcing the plane into a steep climb, letting the plane stall so that he could fall down beneath the hedgehog and wait for the hedgehog's next attempt at cheating death. Luckily Sonic waited for Tails to get down to his level before jumping off the now ruined robot. Tails didn't notice because he had more important things to worry about, like the large laser guns that were coming out of the Doctor's flying fortress, preparing to blow them out of the sky.

"Hold on." Tails called out to Sonic as he waited for the inevitable attack. He gunned the engine as he saw the massive laser begin to charge, aiming straight for our two heroes. The plane shot forward, the rocket providing just enough thrust to get the moving without throwing them, and Tails swung the plane sideways just as the laser fired. The stream of pure energy purged through the air and just missed the plane by mere fractions of an inch.

However, as great as this seemed, they didn't notice the second laser charging immediately after. Tails whipped around as he heard the sound of the laser firing out another stream of pure energy and tried to dodge it, but it was pointless. The old plane was simply too slow, even with the large rocket attached to the bottom, and Tails could only watch in horror as the laser beam sliced into the wing of the plane, ripping shards of metal out of the flimsy frame of the plane. Tails felt the plane beginning to loose power and lift and gunned the engine, caring little for the condition of the aging craft and paying all attention to the rapidly approaching deck of the massive airship.

"Jump, Sonic." Tails yelled out to the blue hedgehog as he stood on an unbroken section of the wing. "This plane isn't going to hold together much longer." As if to prove his words, another section of the plane's metallic shell fell off as a rain of sparks shot out of the crippled engine.

Sonic, thankfully, didn't hesitate and did his best to leap through the air and onto the metallic surface of the plane, landing on one of the wings of the massive flying structure. He span around, hoping the see Tails following him and found himself facing nothing at all. He rushed back to the edge and looked down, fear beginning to grip his heart as thoughts of what could have happened to his young friend ran through his mind, however his efforts were in vain. He looked through the sky, his panic making it incredibly difficult to see anything,

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Sonic sighed and eventually had to accept the inevitable. There was no sight of anything that even remotely resembled his biplane, much less his two-tailed friend.

"Shit." Sonic swore, pulling himself back to his feet and growling under his breathe. There was only one person that Sonic could blame for this, and so it was time for the fat Doctor to die. Sonic felt the last remaining emerald in his quills stir and begin working its power over him, filling his body with energy and reducing the cloud over his mind. Sonic knew what he had to do, and it involved a lot of crying and sobbing from the enemy involved. "I will get you for this, idiot." Sonic muttered angrily, his voice rising and falling uncontrollably as he fought to control his temper. "You will die."

Little did the hedgehog know that his words were both understood and disregarded by his enemy, the evil mastermind who was currently waiting for our hero to come to his stereotypical rescue and fall for the Doctor's trap. "Try and get me, rodent." The Doctor muttered, glancing over at the defenses that the idiot hedgehog would soon be battling. "You don't stand a chance against what I have in store for you."

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**A/n: **I really hope that the chapter was decent. My beta reader was so busy that they forgot I sent them this chapter.....I guess my story isn't exciting enough. Hopefully I can change that. I seem to have lost most of my reviewers, so it would be nice if I got some more....even if they don't have any content. I just want them so that I can see that some people are actually reading this, rather than accidentally clicking on the link.


	16. Chapter 15 Flying Fortress Part2

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Chapter 15 - The Flying Fortress (Part 2)**

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**A/n: **Sorry about the crap length, again, I have some good ideas for the next chapter and everything, but this one, like the one before, is more just setting up. Oh and sorry everything seems to be taking so long, but I have been kind of busy……..okay fine, I got a new PSP game and I got a little distracted……I also read HP6 (which took 6 hours....I still don't know if that's fast or slow) and I also had to try and finish the BLOODY Air Fortress Stage…sorry, it was just so damn difficult and I'm kind of stuck fighting the boss of that stage, hence the long wait for the chapters. I swear that game kicks my ass more than any other I have ever played. Even with Quick Save/Load, it is still taking me ages to get through the game. Anyway, I'm going to try and get past the damn Boss battle.

Btw, _Shippo's Ramen_, you've kinda guessed quite a fair amount of what I'm planning, but remeber that while the hedgehog has the right mind set, he doesn't yet face the cause of his problems. So....well you can kinda guess what I'm going to do when the two come face to face. Oh and thanks for the review. I'm glad it was entertaining, I was worried that it would feel like a filler.

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Everything was going wrong it seemed as Tails furiously tried to force some kind of control out of the quickly plummeting plane. The wind was rushing past him so ferociously that it made even the simple task of breathing difficult, however Tails cared little about simple bodily functions, knowing that for every second he failed, the plane would get closer and closer to the ground.

The panicking fox glanced over at the crucially damaged wing and growled in irritation. With his only hope flapping tattered in hundreds of small shards of metal, Tails knew that he had no choice but to admit defeat and go for broke. He quickly tried to reach the small switch that would fore the rocket once again, and after a few painful seconds of awkward fumbling, understandable in a plane spinning towards the ground, and flicked the tiny switch.

An incredibly rush of adrenaline shot through the fox as he felt the rocket fire, thrusting the plane forward at an insane rate of acceleration, forcing him hard up against the uncomfortable wooden seat of the plane, reducing his every movement to an exhausting process. He gritted his teeth and forced the controls to accept his instructions, pulling the plane out of the impossibly steep dive with every last vestige of energy remaining in his body.

The plane was in a terrible condition by this point with such a massive section of the wing missing. However Tails somehow managed to miraculously pulled the plane into a somewhat stable condition as the ground rapidly approached, racing up to meet the highly damaged plane. Tails shut his eyes tightly and focused solely on the plane's controls, forcing every other though from his mind. He could feel the plane leaning precariously to the right and he was struggling to keep the plane from spiraling out of control.

He could somehow feel the ground racing up to meet him and every atom of his body was screaming at him to jump from the plane and save himself, but he didn't. He knew that he needed the plane if he was to get back into the air and help his friend.

The ground wasn't far off and the plane was still trying to level out, the wind shooting past the greatly affected plane, doing little to stop the unfolding disaster, but in the last few seconds, everything changed. As the plane shot towards the ground at an incredibly rate, its wings doing little to stop the plane from crashing into the grassy meadow below, Tails threw out logic and jumped to instincts.

The temporarily insane fox gunned the engine hard, opening the throttle of the rocket out all the way as he pulled back on the controls with all of his might. The affect was instantaneous with the plane seeming to spin in the air and practically stall mere feet from the ground, landing rather hard onto the ground.

Tails breathed a loud sigh of relief, his body collapsing back onto the plane's small seat as he allowed himself a brief moment to relax as he tried to regain some composure.

* * *

Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't experiencing relief. Instead he got the excellent feeling of cold anger as he stood on the slightly curved surface of the flying fortress, pondering where the Doctor was hiding. The hedgehog slowly stalked over the uneven surface, caring little about the surface in his quest to find the one-who-should-die, aka, the Doctor.

"I will find you." The blue hedgehog repeated quietly as he slowly stepped onto a narrow gantry that ran the length of the fortress in what was probably the only sign that the creator had some sense of sanity. He narrowed his eyes as he spotted a small camera slowly turn and focus on him, showing the Doctor's poorly concealed interest. Sonic carefully continued past the small electronic device, ignoring the quiet electronic whirls as the camera adjusted its view.

However, as he took another step forward, everything changed. A loud explosion rocked the ship and Sonic was forced to make a mad leap through the air as the gantry below him was suddenly obliterated into hundreds of tiny shards of metal, which shot in every direction. Sonic ignored the sudden piercing pain as he felt the small projectiles bury themselves into his flesh, his mind focusing on his landing rather than mere pain.

Sonic grabbed a tight hold of a length of metal scaffolding as he jumped, using his grip to pull himself onto the platform and to safety. He glanced back at the smoking remains of his pathway and sighed, knowing that the Doctor had begun to screw with him, rather than simply trying to kill him.

Knowing that things were going to become much harder now that the Doctor was so well prepared for his visit, Sonic pressed on, hoping that whatever was going on wouldn't be more than he could handle. He carefully made his way through the massive ship, using the iron girders that held the ship together as an effective way to travel. His journey was made all the more harder by the fact that the entire air ship seemed to be booby trapped. It seemed almost as if every second metal girder fell beneath his weight, set up to do nothing more that trick the hedgehog.

Another explosion sounded off and rocked the ship, though this time it was actually a fair distance away, unfortunately it was the sound of the Doctor destroying yet another pathway to the other side. Sonic rolled his eyes and glanced around, looking for another way across the myriad of metalwork that spanned the ship, wondering if there was a simple way to get from one side to the other. Unfortunately, any choice the hedgehog though he had was stripped away as another explosive charge went off, only this time it was the platform he was standing on.

Thankfully the explosion wasn't aimed at Sonic and the hedgehog wasn't harmed by the explosion, though the same couldn't be said about the hundreds of sharps of metal that the explosion shot at him. Sonic felt the platform begin to give way and decided to do something incredibly stupid.

The massive flying fortress was a strange design with the main bridge of the Doctor located at the back of the craft at the very top, and Sonic was going to use that to his advantage. The daredevil span around as he felt the weakened iron clad steel beneath his feet begin to give away, and made his move, leaping straight out of the side of the massive craft and allowing his body to shoot backwards.

He felt the air shoot by his streamlined body and could do little more than throw out his arms and hope as he shot backwards. Sonic was far from an idiot, and the idea behind it was simple. If he jumped off the ship, he could grab a hold of it closer to the Doctor, saving himself from wasting more time in the Doctor's death trap. Of course the hedgehog somehow managed to forget that the forces involved were brutal, a fact he quickly remembered as his body painfully struck a large metallic wing, driving all the air from his lungs.

Sonic grabbed a tight hold of the smooth metal surface and slowly pulled himself on top, the years spent playing on his biplane were definitely paying off. However, even with all of that experience, Sonic still found it incredibly difficult to pull himself onto his feet with the wind attacking his every movement, searching for a second lapse of concentration. Mercifully, Sonic somehow managed to make it to the side of the massive airship without completely screwing up and slowly pulled himself in.

He collapsed as soon as he was back onto solid ground, breathing a loud sigh of relief. Unfortunately, it was about this point that Sonic actually bothered to look around the room he was in. A room that was filled with the Doctor's robotic minions or, more accurately, a room filled with a large number of the Doctor's robotic minions that were all on and focusing their attention on their sudden blue intruder.

Sonic barely had time to curse before the attack began, the small space available doing little to provide the hedgehog with an advantage. He threw himself at the floor as one f the small robots, a strange red jet that had a wing span of a few feet, shot straight at him, caring little for anything but destroying its target. Somehow it didn't adjust in time for the hedgehog's quick evasion and was soon lying in pieces from its rude meeting with the flying fortress's thick iron sides.

Of course, even with such incredibly stupid artificial intelligence powering the underpowered enemy combatants, Sonic was still having a hell of a time evading the multitude of attacks coming his way. While the hedgehog was incredibly fast on his feet, he wasn't perfect and he knew that the only thing stopping him from suffering a painful blow was mere luck.

A fact that was proven as he felt one of the smaller jet robots shoot by, making a thin slice into his arm. Thankfully it was merely a painful wound, not deadly and Sonic was about to dive out of the way of the second attack. However, he knew that he was quickly running out of time.

**

* * *

**

The Doctor watched coldly, via the numerous security cameras hidden through his flying fortress, as his blue hedgehog rival struggled to survive the massive attack. The Doctor cared little for his numerous useless robots and could see no better use than as cannon fodder to distract the hedgehog while the Doctor's plans could become complete.

"Keep him busy, my useless robots." The Doctor muttered coldly as he turned away from the deadly battle and returned to much more important matters. "Just a few more minutes and that stupid rodent will be powerless to even reach me, much less stop my master plan."

And with those curiously forbidding words, the Doctor slowly stood up from his chair, his weight almost making such an event an amazing achievement, and slowly walked out of the room to finish the finer points of what would soon through Sonic through more hell than the hedgehog would ever know.

Theoretically…..

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**A/n:** Yeah, there is going to be a part 3. The levels are starting to feel more constricting than helpful now that I am approaching the end and I am having difficulty keeping the action up. But hopefully everything is going to work properly.


	17. Chapter 16 Flying Fortress Part3

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Chapter 16 - The Flying Fortress (Part 3)**

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**A/n: **Yes. I know that you guys have had to wait ages. For that I am definitely sorry, but I have been really busy…and lazy. I haven't hit any writers block; I have merely lost all drive to write this story, which is a pity. Mind you, I am going to continue it and I'm sure my drive to finish it will take over soon enough, hopefully.

* * *

Tails sighed as he pulled himself up from the wreckage of the aging tornado, ignoring the smoky fumes coming from what was clearly a ruptured fuel line, and quickly check his new location. Thankfully he had somehow managed to land, or crash, in one of the few open meadows that existed on the normally uneven terrain of the massive Southside Island.

Sighing quietly to himself, the fox turned back to the downed plane and couldn't help frowning as he saw the terrible state that the plane had managed to get into once again. "Am I ever going to be able to fly this damn plane without smashing it?" Tails complained to himself as he inspected the damage, unconsciously rubbing his neck to remove a slight twinge of pain.

However the fox's quiet complaints were interrupted by the painfully loud sound of an explosion assaulted the fox's sensitive ears. Tails quickly turned away from the wreck of a biplane and looked back into the sky at the fortress that had hurt him. He was amazed to see massive iron walkways, plummeting out from the bottom of the impressively bulky flying craft, and crashing loudly to the ground quite a fair distance away.

Tails watched, his body strangely conflicted with both horror and surprise as he watched the strange sight, his mind running through the reasons for such an event. However with no sign of the blue hedgehog's slim body plummeting towards the ground was enough to relieve some of the fox's worry. The slightly apprehensive fox turned away from the Doctor's apparently deadly attacks and quickly tried to return some form of functionality to the ruined plane that lay in tatters before him.

Ten minutes later, not much had changed. Tails had spent quite while on the engine of the burned out plane, but even he could tell that there was little chance that the aging wreak would ever be able to fly again unless it was completely rebuilt, and Tails simply didn't have the time. He glanced back at the Doctor's flying fortress, noting to himself the fact that the massive craft had barely moved in the last few minutes and assumed that it was probably preparing for some kind of dangerous assault.

Sighing miserably, the tired fox turned back to the wreckage and contemplated giving up. While he knew that he could almost certainly fix the damage to the craft eventually, he knew that there wasn't a whole lot he could do with no spare parts available. However, the fox was resistant to the idea of merely abandon any hope of helping his blue hedgehog friend; he knew that he had to help his friend…somehow.

Growling in irritation, the young fox slowly pulled out 5 of the incredibly valuable emeralds and pondered their use. "I need to help Sonic and I know you have helped us in the past, so how about you help me help Sonic?" He asked the silent emeralds calmly, internally wishing that he had another plan that didn't rely on the potentially useless power of the emeralds.

The emeralds ignored the fox's commands and remained motionless in his hands, doing nothing to help Tails as he worried about his friend's safety. "Why won't you help me?" He asked angrily, his hands tightening around the valuable gems as he tried to keep his temper down. "I've seen you help Sonic and as much as you stupid rocks don't seem to care, you need Sonic as much as me. So stop acting stupid and find some way to get me into the sky to help my friend."

However, for all of the protests of the fox, his pleas fell of deaf ears as the emeralds continued to ignore the now-panicking pilot. "Help me." He snarled irately, his anger quickly getting the best of him. He threw the emeralds at the ground and turned away from the infuriatingly useless gems. "Fine then, I'll just do it myself." He turned back to the craft and sighed, knowing that the task ahead was going to be irritating tedious as he tried to give some life back to the dead plane.

Unknown to the young fox, the discarded emerald had not ignored the fox's request and was already hard at work to do the impossible and return control to the damaged craft.

* * *

Sonic threw himself to the ground for what felt like the hundredth time as yet another attack shot overhead, missing by less than an inch, much closer than any before. It was becoming clear that the robots were beginning to learn from the hedgehog's actions and Sonic knew it was only a matter of time before he was completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of his enemies.

He threw another look around the dark hanger that held the numerous robots and sighed loudly. The robotic minions were all shapes and sizes and there weren't many advantages by moving to higher ground, not that such a feat would have been all that possible with so many enemies. Sonic glanced away from the attacking robots yet again to search for a way out, noting that the only entrance, besides the way he had come in, was a fair height above him and easily out of his reach.

Unfortunately, Sonic had remained still for a bit too long and was brought out of his thoughts by a painful blow from behind, thanks to a small metal egg that a nearby robotic chicken had thrown his way. Acting purely on instincts, Sonic span around and tore the top of the robot clear off of its body, destroying the robotic creature. However he didn't have much time to celebrate before yet another enemy moved in for an attack. Things were clearly becoming dangerous and Sonic knew that he had to find a way to escape the numerous robots coming his way.

However just as Sonic was about to take a brutal hit from the side, every nerve in his body wass suddenly hit by a blast of energy from the small emerald resting in his quills. Sonic, taking the advantage for what it was, wasted no time destroying what was near and using the resulting destruction as cover to leave the deadly area, Realising that his survival would only continue while the emerald continued to supply its mysterious energy..

Sonic pulled himself onto a metal support that held up the high smooth brushed metal ceiling of the craft and used it to get out of the room with relative ease, ignoring the numerous robotic droids that were been sent his way. However, little did he know that his every move was been closely watched and it was only a matter of time before his luck, and energy, ran out.

"You may be toying with me." The angry hedgehog muttered as he pulled himself out of the robotic storage area and into a rather nondescript corridor that seemed to stretch almost the full length of the ship.

"But I will …" Sonic trailed off as his ears picked up a faint humming sound that appeared to be almost overhead. He paused his movements and checked the hallway, searching for any sign that the Doctor was nearby. He heard a loud laugh of triumph and suddenly a massive wall of pure plasma energy shot out in front of him, forming a wall across the hallway, blocking the hedgehog's path. Sonic span around and saw that the other end of the hallway had also become blocked by the same thing. Sonic growled in irritation, providing the emerald to sustain a deeper link with the hedgehog.

Sonic contemplated lashing out at the immovable barrier when he heard the not-so-good Doctor's evil laughter. He span around and saw the Doctor standing there, a devious smirk on his face. It was right at that moment that everything changed. Sonic stared in cold anger at the murder of his best friend and slowly stepped up to the edge of the barrier so that his was within mere feet of the one that had caused him, and his two tailed friend, so much pain.

"Hello m dear rodent, I'm glad to see that you have fallen for my trap." The Doctor told the hedgehog is his best condescending tone. "I do so very much hope that you enjoy your stay, as short as it may be."

"I will kill you." The hedgehog promised, ignoring the crap from the over-enthusiastic evil maniac. As the Doctor looked at him and smirked every single thought and feeling in Sonic's body instantly changed the sheer unlimited anger that was fed through the emerald in his quills, strengthening his every though.

"Whatever skills you may have, there is still no way for you to get through these plasma barriers unless I turn them off, something that I am certainly not going to do." The Doctor informed his quietly, his voice taking on a much colder edge than before. "Besides, you have other things to worry about, like that massive laser above you head."

Sonic quickly turned; easily spotting the large laser as it slowly lowered out of the roof and aimed itself at the livid Sonic. He heard the laser begin to charge and made his move, quickly jumping into the air as the laser approached critical mass. Regrettably, his jump was simply too low to reach the hazardous item and the hedgehog was forced to toss himself out of the way as a stream of deadly energy blasted out of the mechanism and impacted the ground heavily, leaving a small crater in the solid iron floor.

However, the hazards were still coming and Sonic barely had time to stand before the Doctor threw a small switch, sending a signal to the numerous electronics hidden above to start their next deadly task. Sonic could do little more than watch as a large panel opened up in the roof directly above him, a hole thought which 3 strange mechanical flying balls dropped out.

Unfortunately for the hedgehog, the new projectiles seemed to somehow maneuver in the air and shot straight at the unprepared animal, missing him by mere inches. This was going to suck. Sonic was forced to jump into the air to dodge the deadly projectile, feeling the sharp spikes run through his fur and miss his body by an amount that was simply way too small.

To make matters worse, Sonic could hear the laser above charging for another deadly attack. He glanced over at the impenetrable barrier and couldn't help groaning as he realized that the Doctor had already managed to leave, abandoning Sonic to face the robotical menace. Sonic felt his anger rising again and then something snapped inside the pissed hedgehog. "How dare he leave alive?" Sonic asked himself quietly as he looked back at the deadly laser above, noting the fact that it was charging with little care.

He spotted one of the deadly platforms shooting back at him and everything changed. The emerald concealed in his quills began to glow and the hedgehog's body began to glow with an almost invisible wave of energy. Sonic didn't even bother hesitating and jumped straight at the floating balls of spikes, grabbing one and hurling it with all of his might at the deadly laser above. The strange metallic ball of spikes shot toward the intricate design of the laser and the impact was quite spectacular.

As soon as the two devices impacted on one another the laser fired, rebounding off one of the spikes, throwing an arc of deadly energy across the room and thought the floor into the complex mechanics that controlled the plasma barriers, destroying them. Sonic took his chance and charged for the exit, the emerald supplying more than enough energy to stave off the hedgehog's fatigue.

However as he charged along the corridor that he had seen the Doctor disappear along, he came across a serious problem. Sonic was running he felt the entire flying fortress begin to shake and an incredibly loud roar seemed to erupt from everywhere around him. He glanced ahead along the path and saw it end abruptly at the edge of the plane.

The roaring got immeasurably louder and suddenly everything changed, the entire fortress seemed to shudder as a large chunk of its construction shot upward. Ahead, the corridor simply ended with a massive hole out of the side of the flying fortress. Sonic looked around, searching for where the Doctor had gone. He spotted a massive rocket shooting off into the air above and Sonic could do little more than growl in frustration as he watched the deadly enemy make his successful getaway.

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**A/n: **I've just noticed that I have been called this level the "Flying Fortress" when it is actually called the "Wing Fortress"...oh well.


	18. Chapter 17 Last Chapter

**A New Hero's Creation**

**Last Chapter**

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**A/n: **Okay. That's it. I'm sorry but this is the end.

I can't stand this story any longer. So here is a crappy ending to both wrap up the story and stop me from having to do any more. If anyone wants to properly finish it, the story is theirs. Just PM and/or email me and I'll send you the entire story in whatever format seems good and I'll finally be rid of this damn thing.

Oh, one last thing. If you do feel like reviewing, please to tell me whether I should delete or keep this story online (or PM me). Now onto the crappy ending.

* * *

The sun was shining happily overhead, but the mood was far from peaceful as Tails gently started the small engine of the repaired biplane, worried about the apparent weak nature of what should've been regarded as a antique rather than a mode of transport. Ignoring his worries, Tails jumped into the plane and let the throttle out slightly He was hoping to get the plane back into the air before he collapsed from exhaustion, a possibility that was due partly to both the sun and his thick coat of fur. He cautiously let out the throttle some more and could feel the engine splutter as it tried to follow it's new commands, allowing the thick smell of gasoline into the air. He could already feel the vibrations from the plane beginning to spread from the wings before he left the ground, the precursors to problems that the young fox knew would only get worse. Still, the fox couldn't help feeling a small hint of freedom as he felt the plane beginning to move forward, lumbering somewhat irregularly across the bumpy terrain.

He felt the speed pick up quickly, the plane's movements becoming increasingly rough, Under normal circumstances the fox would have probably taken the time to look for a smoother place to take off, or at the very least fit suspension to the plane's landing gear, but, with his friends life hanging in the balance, time simply wasn't something to be wasted.

When he was sure that he had reached a sufficient speed, and that the plane was going to remain in one piece, the young pilot pulled back on the controls of the small plane, grinning as it responded to his commands with amazingly responsive movements.

The plane quickly rose into the air, barely twitching as the fox tried to get into the air quickly. As soon as he was in the air properly, Tails deployed his not-quite-so-secret weapon, the small rocket that he'd reattached to the underside of the craft. He felt the electric fuse shoot through the body of the plane before there was silence.

He barely had time to take a breath before the plane shot forward, driving his body back against the rough wooden chair of the ageing plane. Tails wrestled the plane for control as it shot through the air at speeds that should have technically been impossible in the aging wooden biplane. He knew that Sonic needed his help and he simply had no choice but to get over there before it was too late.

* * *

Sonic was just pulling himself back to his feet, and watching the Doctor make his successful getaway, when he heard a rather familiar sound. The sound of his biplane struggling to pull itself thought the air. He spun around and was surprised to see his two tailed friend shooting through the air in the wreaked biplane. Sonic didn't know what was more shocking, the fact the Tails had managed to survive a fall that should have killed him, or the fact that the plane looked like it was barely in piece, and yet could still fly.

As Tails flew in closer, Sonic, as impatient as ever, jumped and landed on the wing of the plane. Tails was understandably surprised by the sudden appearance of his hero, but he thankfully managed to not react and throw the sudden weight off.

"What on Mobius are you doing here?' Sonic yelled over the rushing wind to his young friend. The hedgehog slowly pulled himself into a better position on the wing and waited for an answer. "You almost died, Tails. I can't have you stay here."

Tails rolled his eyes and opened the throttle out as wide as it could go, wincing slightly as the g forces through his body back against the seat one again. "I know what I am doing, Sonic." Tails shot back, feeling rather irritated by Sonic's worries. "You need my help, so I'm giving it to you, so shut up and hold on." And with those parting words the infuriated fox set to rocket beneath the plane alight. All thoughts of conversation and the Doctor instantly disappeared as the plane shot forward, throwing the two Mobians backwards in their seats and stealing ever breathe of air from their lungs. Thankfully the extreme speed had two rather important benefits. One, it meant that the old biplane was somehow matching the speed of the fleeing Doctor, and two, the speed was so great that the Doctor was unable to end any enemies or obstacles to stop them.

Unfortunately, when the two heroes were thrown backward and against whatever was close, tails didn't fare as well as Sonic. While the hedgehog was holding on tightly already, the young fox was leaning forward to turn on the rocket, meaning that the sudden acceleration was equal to the kit being hit by a truck from behind. This meant that the young fox was slumped over in his seat with his head spinning, instead of controlling the plane. The worst part was that the blue hedgehog had failed to notice their predicament.

Of course, Sonic's ignorance to his friend was for a good reason. The hedgehog was simply too shocked at the sight of the massive black space station that the two crafts were heading towards. The space station was in the shape of a giant egg, it's front adorned with excess metal to give a certain likeness to the Doctor, in all of his ugliness. The massive structure simply dominated the sky in all of it's mechanical marvelousness and Sonic couldn't help but wonder how the massive ball stayed in the air.

Sonic glanced down and noticed his friends problems, pulling himself into the small biplane and helping the kit sit straight. "This is it, Tails." Sonic muttered as the followed the Doctor's craft to the massive metal and mechanical ball. "Time for the Doctor to die."

And with those words, Tails pulling himself back upright and got ready for the final approach, all the while smiling at the thought of stopping the evil idiot. "Let's do it." Unknown to the two heroes, the small emeralds began to slowly glow, supplying even more power to the agin craft, throwing them towards their target, the Evil Doctor Robotnik.

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I guess you could say that the rest is history, from that day onward the two friends became heroes... and Mobius survived thanks to the two remarkable animals.

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**A/n:** yeah, I know. That was a terrible ending. if you don't like it, try writing one yourself.


End file.
